A (Mostly) Wretched Day for Retail: Tuesday’s IP Market Recap

by Marc Bastow | August 6, 2013 5:03 pm

[1]With no economic news and lighter summer trading weighing on the day, markets spent a second day in a row heading lower.

The selling mood was exacerbated by comments from Atlanta Federal Reserve president Dennis Lockhart and his Chicago counterpart, Charles Evans, who both suggested the Fed’s buying program could start to wind down as early as September.

The Nasdaq led the way lower, losing 0.74% to close at 3665.77, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6% to 15518.74. The S&P 500 lost 0.57% to end the day at 1697.37.

Retail stocks were particularly active on the day, with mixed results.

American Eagle (AEO[2]) revised its second-quarter earnings outlook to 10 cents per share vs. its previous guidance that came in a range of 19 to 21 cents; analysts had also expected 21 cents per share, and AEO was sent down more than 12%.

Other teen retailers showed weakness, including Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF[3], -4.1%), Urban Outfitters (URBN[4], -2.8%), and Gap Inc. (GPS[5], -1.6%). Also, bigger specialty retailers Sears (SHLD[6], -5.3%) and JCPenney (JCP[7], -3.9%) were off solidly on the day.

However, not all was awful in retail.

Fashion accessory maker Fossil (FOSL[8]) rocketed 17% after a record-breaking Q2 earnings report that included hiked guidance for the third quarter and full year. Michael Kors (KORS[9]) also posted a bang-up quarter[10], and its shares traded higher by more than 3%.

Washington Post (WPO[11]) shares finished 4% higher on news released Monday night that Amazon (AMZN[12]) founder Jeff Bezos will purchase the paper and its properties[13] for $250 million.

IBM (IBM[14]) announced a furlough program for employees[15] in its hardware division, citing a need to cut back on expenses, and Credit Suisse cut back IBM’s rating from “neutral” to “underperform.” IBM finished down more than 2%.

Finally, after the bell, Disney (DIS[16]) announced a third-quarter earnings beat with adjusted profits of $1.03 per share, topping the year-ago period’s $1.01, which was the same amount analysts expected. That came on revenues that improved 4% to $11.58 billion, falling just shy of estimates for $11.64 billion. Shares were down fractionally in after-hours trading.

Earnings notables for Wednesday include AOL (AOL[17]), Time Warner (TWX[18]) and Tesla Motors (TSLA[19]).

Three Up

• LightInTheBox (LITB[20]): Up 5.7% ($1.02) to $18.87.
• GT Advanced Technology (GTAT[21]): Up 5.6% (29 cents) to $5.47.
• Callaway Golf (ELY[22]): Up 5.5% (39 cents) to $7.54.

Three Down

• Jamba Juice (JMBA[23]): Down 13.3% ($2.13) to $13.87.
• TREX (TREX[24]): Down 11.9% ($6.07) to $44.76.
• Iamgold (IAG[25]): Down 8.2% (39 cents) to $4.39.

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long DIS.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/08/tuesdays-ip-market-recap-aeo-anf-urbn-gps-fosl-kors/

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