NEW YORK — There’s more trouble for the nation’s malls heading into the crucial holiday shopping season.

A slew of mall-based clothing retailers delivered weak third-quarter earnings reports in recent days, the latest indication of shoppers’ increasing shift online and away from traditional shopping meccas.

Macy’s on Thursday cut its profit and sales expectations for the year after posting a steeper-than-expected 3.5 percent drop in sales at stores opened at least a year including business from licensed departments like jewelry. It marked Macy’s first quarterly comparable store sales decline in almost two years.

Macy’s, which also operates Bloomingdale’s, cited the late arrival of colder weather and meager tourist business. But it also blamed a steeper-than-anticipated sales decline in stores at lower-tier malls.

Kohl’s cut its profit outlook for the year after a disappointing third quarter dragged down by poor women’s clothing sales. It posted an overall anemic 0.4 percent increase same-store sales. Meanwhile, J.C. Penney has long been struggling and is in the throes of another reinvention. Same-store sales fell 9.3 percent in the quarter.

Nordstrom, which reported results late Thursday, raised the lower end of its annual earnings forecast, noting that the impact of tariffs on Chinese imports would not be significant. But the divide between its mall-based stores and its Nordstrom Rack stores continued. Its regular Nordstrom department stores saw net sales down 4.1 percent. while its Nordstrom Rack stores had a 1.2 percent increase in the quarter. The Gap, which also reported late Thursday and earlier this month fired its CEO, said sales at established stores fell across all its brands.