ThinkstockRetailers are announcing August same-store sales figures today. Research firm Retail Metrics projected an overall gain of 3.2% year-over-year, compared with a 4.2% gain in July and a 4.3% gain in June.…
ThinkstockThe last, and largest, of the discount variety stores reports second quarter earnings tomorrow. Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) is expected to post earnings per share (EPS) of $0.74 on revenues of…
ThinkstockAs retail and fast-food workers strike across 60 cities as a means to get their employers to raise wages as high as $15 an hour, most Americans support the labor union system,…
ThinkstockLabor Day is always an interesting holiday, and it has serious ramifications on consumer spending and on the economy. The 2013 back-to-school spending has been down after a record 2012, and this…
Courtesy J.C. Penney Co. Inc.; photo by Chris RupertJ.C Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) continues to face unprecedented drops in traffic and sales that, to some extent, caused its largest shareholder Bill…
courtesy Making Change at Walmart and UFCW Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) recently held what it called its “Walmart U.S. Manufacturing Summit.” One of the purposes of the meeting was to promote new…
Courtesy J.C. Penney Co. Inc.; photo by Chris RupertConsider the holiday sales season started, even though Labor Day weekend has not begun. A number of large retailers are stocking up for the…
courtesy of TargetIn its second-quarter earnings report released before markets opened on Wednesday, Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) announced adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.19 on revenues of $17.12 billion, compared with…
courtesy of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.Walmart is the largest American employer, with a workforce of nearly 2.2 million people. However, because of its international reach, only 1.3 million of those were employed in…
Jon OggNow that interest rates have risen and stocks have slid, investors are looking for bargain stocks but also trying to decide which stocks they should get out as well. These same…
ThinkstockSo far this earnings season U.S. retailers haven’t put up a very good show. Retailers that have already reported results said that customers had become cautious again during the quarter and same-store…
August 16, 2013: U.S. equity markets opened lower this morning following big down day on Thursday. In the U.S., the Census Bureau’s report on July housing starts put up a positive number,…
ThinkstockThe just released Reuters University of Michigan report on consumer sentiment is the preliminary report for August. While we argue that this reading focuses on far too few households to be a…
Jon C. Ogg ThinkstockU.S. railroads moved nearly 260,000 intermodal units (containers) in the week ended August 10. That is a 6.1% increase over the same week a year ago, and it is a hopeful sign…
Another Friday is here, and it is time to reflect on the stock market volatility that has picked up in the past couple of weeks. Investors likely are wondering which stocks may have…
