Swedish fashion retailer H&M reported on Thursday a forecast-beating jump in September-November profit helped by lower costs, but flagged a drop in December-January local-currency sales. Operating profit in H&M's fiscal fourth quarter, which includes the crucial Black Friday weekend, was 6.36 billion crowns ($723.5 million) against a year-earlier 4.62 billion and a mean forecast in an LSEG poll of analysts of 5.53 billion, on an organic sales increase of 2%. The operating margin widened to 10.7% from 7.4% a year ago.