Strength was broad-based across all retailing groups except the drugstore segment. Drugstores, hurt by weakness in pharmacy (comparable sales), were the only major retailing segment to fall short of expectations. |
That number may go up to 3.9 percent growth now. |
That's 2.1 percentage points below the norm that we've seen. |
That's a pretty long stretch, and investors are concerned that earnings could take a hit unless sales improve. |
That's well above the long term average of 54 percent beating and 42 percent falling short of expectations. |
The American consumer has been particularly resilient over the last year plus, ... They're finding ways to spend. |
The Conference Board's November consumer confidence Index fell in November for the fourth consecutive month and was noticeably weak among lower income consumers. |
The consumer has not run out of gas yet, provided the job market continues to remain fairly decent. |
The deceleration in earnings growth is a significant concern. Techs are up against steep comparisons in the second half of this year and the first half of next year, |
The first two quarters of last year were OK but not stellar. If we still have double digit increases in earnings during the third quarter, that would be good news. |
The first-quarter forecast is for earnings to grow 10.5 percent, although that estimate may drift lower. |
The impressive part is that it's not just the luxury names posting strong numbers. The big numbers are coming in for the department stores and apparel names as well. |
The last time Wal-Mart had a monthly same-store sales gain that low was back in December of 2000, with a 0.3 percent rise. Prior to that was in April of 1996, with a 0.2 percent gain. That was probably another year when Easter got pushed into April. |
The market is in terrible shape and the prospects for growth are not good, |
The news has been pretty positive given the headwinds consumers and retailers alike have been facing, ... encouraging. |