Target Traffic Falls On Data Breach

BVO - The massive data breach at Target scared customers away from its stores on one of the busiest weekends of the holiday shopping season. Transactions at the discount retailer fell 3 to 4 percent on the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported citing estimates from Customer Growth Partners. Target even dangled 10 percent discounts to all customers to try to get them to shop.

Also hurting Target: Chase took steps to protect itself. The bank slapped limits on how much shoppers using its cards at Target stores could spend. The Journal reports that Citibank may also lower limits in some cases.

All this happened after Target said last week that hackers had stolen data from up to 40 million credit and debit cards.

Target's stock, which has gained only 5 percent this year, was fell in early trade.

Buckingham Research analyst David Hochstim said the data breach will likely add momentum to the adoption of the more secure system used in Europe and Canada - cards that store data on chips instead of the magnetic stripes used in the U.S. Chips make it harder for thieves to misuse data.