Home Depot Inc. and Lowe's Cos. have the most at stake among retailers facing a dockworkers' strike, with possible port closings cutting off shipments right before the lucrative gardening season.

Home Depot, the biggest U.S. home-improvement chain, is making plans in case 15,000 workers at ports from Maine to Texas walk off the job, and Lowe's said that it is monitoring the talks. About 45 percent of the commerce that flows in an out of the U.S. goes through East Coast ports, according to the National Retail Federation.

Retailers "would be hit far and wide from apparel to home goods to patio furniture to barbecues," Jonathan Gold, the NRF's vice president for supply chain and customs policy, said yesterday in a telephone interview from Washington. "It is a major concern. At this point, we don't anticipate a settlement."

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