Its gross margin rate increased 1.8 percentage points, to 29.1 percent.
The normal margin rate has been raised to 60%, & for a few stocks the margin has been set at 70%.
While the aggressive stance spurred sales, margin rates declined at Sears, the company's largest chain.
"It's the way you build big service revenues and good margin rates".
The Big Board said there was no indication higher margin rates were needed, though it was monitoring borrowing.
At a cost, of course: the typical margin rate for borrowers is at least 7percentt at most shops.
The hike in the margin rate to an usually high 45% could put further pressure on the banks as they use such bonds as collateral to raise cash.
Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission set the margin rate at 20percentt, concurring with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which took similar action earlier in the month.
He added that while it was a difficult quarter, the company was successful in reducing domestic inventory by $500 million, which he believed should lead to lower markdowns and help improve gross margin rates in the second half of the year.
But he added that the retailer's gross margin rate of 54.4 percent — down from 57.9 percent in the prior-year period — was weaker than expected and its tax rate was higher than expected.
Saks Fifth Avenue, meanwhile, which said it was selling items like fine jewelry, fragrances and men's accessories at a fast clip, had a "historically high gross margin rate performance," said the chairman and chief executive, Stephen I. Sadove, in a statement.
