- Soft earnings reports from Target, Lowe's, and Staples are tainting the retail sector today.
- A loose theme among the trio is that they are feeling the impact of general store traffic pressure on one front and under-performing Amazon on the e-commerce side (or Home Depot in the case of Lowe's).
- Notable movers include Office Depot (ODP -7%), Pier 1 Imports (PIR -2.7%), Haverty Furniture (HVT -1.1%), Sears Holdings (SHLD -6.5%), Stage Stores (SSI -3%), Nordstrom (JWN -2.4%), Tilly's (TLYS -0.8%), Zagg (ZAGG -2.7%), Party City (PRTY -1.3%), J.C. Penney (JCP -4.4%), Restoration Hardware (RH -4.1%) Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY -1.9%), Williams-Sonoma (WSM -2.8%), and Kohl's (KSS -2.3%),
- Looking ahead, Wal-Mart (WMT -0.3%) reports earnings tomorrow before the bell. The same-store sales bar is relatively low after the company guided for a 1% gain for U.S. SSS and with the consensus estimate of analysts even lower at +0.9%. Perhaps more important than Q2 numbers will be the comments from Wal-Mart management on the Jet.com integration and the impact of higher base wages.