The generally poor economic outlook, including well-known housing pressures, rising food and fuel prices and a more negative employment picture eroded consumer confidence and impacted discretionary purchases for the home. – Robert Niblock, CEO Lowe’s Home improvement retailer Lowe’s (LOW)…
Troubling all around, lower confidence and ongoing inflation worries. – Ian Lyngen, Interest Rate Strategist, RBS Greenwich Capital This morning the Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey fell to 59.5 – down from 62.6 in April and its lowest level…
This is just getting dumb. Nordstrom (JWN) announced after the close 1st quarter EPS of 54 cents a share on a 6.5% same store sales decline. Net income declined by 24%. After a long string of impressive same store sales…
Yesterday Macy’s (M) reported 1st quarter earnings. They reported earnings of 2 cents a share on a continuing basis compared to 16 cents last year. Sales were down 3% and same store sales down 2.6% (M Earnings Release). The stock…
Like many retailers we’re seeing softer sales at our restaurants in California, Phoenix and Las Vegas, which have been hardest hit by the housing downturn, high fuel prices and unemployment. – Jack In The Box Earnings Release Fast food restaurant…
Using an overly aggressive seasonal adjustment factor, the statistical magicians turned an actual 6.5% surge in gasoline prices into a small decline. I wonder if they can read the minds of very skeptical American motorists who are not fooled by…
Our business is even more relevant to our customers today, given the current economic pressures. – Lee Scott, CEO Walmart This is the Walmart Economy! I’ve been talking about this for a bit now (see, for example, “Dan Gross: Tough…
Why is the stock market up so much today? News doesn’t really seem to be driving it. Volume is especially weak with only about 710,000 shares trading on the NYSE leading into the final hour. A small amount of buying…
Bill Miller: The New York Times today did a feature article on Legg Mason’s Bill Miller, who beat the S&P 500 for 15 straight years from 1991-2005 before faltering the last few years: “Humbler, After A Streak of Magic”. On Bill…
“The new capital will enable Fannie Mae to maintain a strong, conservative balance sheet….” – Fannie Mae 1st Quarter Earnings Release The Heard On The Street column in today’s WSJ, “Will $6 Billion Do For Fannie?” (subscription required), caught my attention. Fannie announced…