The good news is, beleaguered retailer Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) managed to top last quarter’s earnings and sales estimates, and as a result, SHLD stock is heading higher in Thursday morning’s early trade. The bad news is, expectations were pathetically low.

The really bad news is, Sears still is marching its way toward the edge of a cliff.

The market ended up seeing the glass as half-full rather than half-empty, by virtue of the solid gain from SHLD stock in Thursday’s early trading. It remains to be seen, however, if traders will still feel as bullish tomorrow. Follow-through isn’t exactly the stock’s strong suit.

Given Sears’ history and back-story though, it doesn’t seem likely this time around, either.

Sears Earnings Recap

For the second fiscal quarter ending in July, Sears Holdings lost $2.34 per share, narrowing the $3.70 per-share loss booked in the same quarter a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, though, the retailer only lost $1.16 per share versus expectations for a loss of $2.48.

Take the relatively good results with a grain of salt.

While an adjusted tally of operating income is intended to — and usually does — better reflect an organization’s true health, Sears’ one-time adjustments seem to occur on a regular basis, and have a funny way of blurring rather than clarifying the picture.

And, oh yeah — there’s only one analyst following Sears and bothering to issue outlooks. It’s also not entirely clear that the sole observer is even bothering to update those estimates on a regular basis.

The far more meaningful metric for Sears is sales, which it’s sad to say, continue to implode no matter how you slice it. While Q2’s top line of $4.37 billion was better than the market’s projection of $4.21 billion, it also was down from $5.66 billion a year ago. Store closures were a factor, accounting for $770 million of the $1.29 billion difference. Nevertheless, same-store sales fell 11.5%, underscoring how even Sears’ remaining locations continue to lose business.

Liquidity, unusually enough, isn’t as concerning now as it has been in recent quarters.

CEO Eddie Lampert commented on the quarter’s numbers:

“We are making progress on the strategic priorities we outlined earlier this year and remain focused on returning our Company to profitability. The comprehensive restructuring of our operations is delivering cost efficiencies and helping drive improvements to our operating performance. While the third quarter has historically been our most difficult quarter over the past several years, we are working towards making meaningful improvement in our performance this year as a result of the restructuring actions we have put in place, and our continued focus on the expansion of our Shop Your Way ecosystem.”

Once again, Lampert’s public assessment of the organization’s performance stretches the definition of the words “progress” and “improvements.”

Bottom Line for SHLD Stock

After years of deterioration and years of undeserved survival rooted in the CEO’s apparent denial of the company’s true state of affairs, Sears has become less of an investment and more of a circus sideshow.

Mostly, the market wants to know which piece of the company will Lampert sell next — crimping its ability to generate much-needed revenue — and how much time will that buy the retailer.

To that end (and for perspective), the company has already closed 180 of the 1,400 or so stores it started the year with, and another 150 will be shut down before the end of the quarter currently underway. Sears will be adding another 28 stores to the list of impending closures today.

The rationale for closing any store is the amputation of units that are hurting more than helping, but with same-store sales falling by double digits in every quarter for several years now, it doesn’t appear many (if any) of its venues are doing very well.

SHLD stock is up on the order of 6% early Thursday. Fans and followers may want to savor the moment.

They also might want to consider using the bullish pop as an exit point. Lampert’s plan to shrink the company into profitability looks like it will finally work … right around the time the top line is nil.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter.