Market Currents

• Today - Monday, December 14, 2009

• 09:44 AM RadioShack (RSH +3.7%) should post outsized gains next year, Barclays says, lifting shares to Overweight. Among positive factors: the addition of T-Mobile (DT) as a third wireless carrier; the iPhone (AAPL); a new branding campaign; and managing wireless kiosks in Target (TGT) stores. "We would be accumulating a position at the current level and view the stock as a solid investment for 2010." Comment!

• Thursday, December 3, 2009

• 08:40 AM Nov. same-store sales (actual vs. Briefing.com estimate), update #2:
  ANF -17% vs. -10%.
  AEO -2% vs. -2.2%.
  CATO 0% vs. -1.5%.
  DDS -11% vs. -8%.
  FRED -3.3% vs. -1.5%.
  GPS 0% vs. -0.2%.
  JCP -5.9% vs. -4.5%.
  JWN +2.2% vs. +2%.
  KSS +3.3% vs. +0.8%.
  M -6.1% vs. -3.2%.
  SKS -26.1% vs. -21%.
  TGT -1.5% vs. -0.6%.
  TJX +8% vs. +9.1%.
  WTSLA -5% vs. -6.6%.
  8 misses, 6 beats, for a total of 18 misses and 7 beats. 4 Comments

• Friday, November 27, 2009

• 09:10 AM Doorbuster reports: Best Buy's (BBY) CEO says Black Friday traffic is up. Anecdotal evidence shows some full parking lots and more cash payments so far. Shoppers were lined up well before midnight Thursday at Best Buy, Target (TGT) and Toys R Us stores, while Wal-Mart (WMT) broke the mold by remaining open for 24 hours during the holiday. (photos) 1 Comment

• Thursday, November 19, 2009

• 09:20 AM Wal-Mart (WMT) CEO Raul Vasquez throws down the gauntlet on price wars: "If they react and match our prices, we're going to continue to lower our prices." Last month Wal-Mart (WMT) initiated a book/video price war with Amazon.com (AMZN) and Target (TGT). 2 Comments

• Wednesday, November 18, 2009

• 09:57 AM Goldman Sachs drops Target (TGT -0.7%) from its Conviction Buy list, cutting shares to Neutral over concerns Wal-Mart's (WMT +0.2%) aggressive discounting will impact its competitors' margins. "Wal-Mart has already turned up the heat with all stores open on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday promotions launching one week earlier," firm says, which is "likely to pressure its competitors' sales and margins as they are forced to respond." Comment!

• Tuesday, November 17, 2009

• 08:32 AM Target (TGT): Q3 EPS of $0.58 beats by $0.08. Revenue of $14.79B (+1.4%) vs. $15.25B. Remains cautious about Q4. (PR) 1 Comment
• 00:05 AM Notable premarket earnings: CSIQ, COV, DDS, HD, JEC, MPEL, SKS, TGT, TJX 1 Comment

• Sunday, November 15, 2009

• 17:16 PM Kudos to Wal-Mart (WMT) and Target (TGT) for betting on Zhu Zhu Pets, one of the hottest toys in history. 3 Comments

• Friday, November 6, 2009

• 08:52 AM Wal-Mart (WMT) expands its price war with Amazon.com (AMZN) and Target (TGT) from books into video, cutting prices on 10 highly anticipated DVDs to $10 and drawing price matches from the other combatants. (previously) 1 Comment

• Thursday, November 5, 2009

• 08:53 AM Same-store sales results #2:
  CATO flat vs. +4%.
  JCP -4.5% vs. -2.6%.
  LTD -4% vs. -3.1%.
  M -0.8% vs. flat.
  JWN +6.5% vs. +2.9%.
  ROST +9% vs. +7.1%.
  SSI -0.1% vs. -4.4%.
  TGT -0.1% in line.
  BKE +4.3% vs. +5.8%.
  WTSLA -1.3% vs. -7.3%.
  ZUMZ -8.9% vs. -6.5%.
  SKS +0.7% vs. -3%. Comment!

• Wednesday, October 28, 2009

• 10:34 AM Citigroup does an about-face on Target (TGT +1.2%), shifting to Buy from Sell and boosting price target to $61 from $44. Firm sees "significant upside" to EPS "driven by gross margin gains and productivity improvements," and believes Target "has a long runway of productivity improvements ahead, driven by improved labor scheduling, rigorous expense line reviews and increased management accountability, and in-store technology investments." 1 Comment

• Thursday, October 22, 2009

• 19:05 PM American Booksellers Association asks the Department of Justice to investigate this week's price war between Amazon.com (AMZN), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Target (TGT), claiming it constitutes illegal predatory pricing that is damaging to the book industry and harmful to consumers. 8 Comments

• Thursday, October 8, 2009

• 08:44 AM Same-store sales results #3 (actual vs. consensus): ARO +19% vs. +12.3%. CTR +6% vs. flat. JCP -1.4% vs. -3.3%. KSS +5.5% vs. +0.2%. JWN -2.4% vs. -5.9%. ROST +8% vs. +7.3%. SKS -11.6% vs. -11.9%. TGT -1.7% vs. -2.2%. TJX +7% vs. +4.1%. Total positive vs. negative suprises: 21:5. Comment!

• Wednesday, September 30, 2009

• 09:45 AM UBS drops Target (TGT -1.2%) to Neutral, noting "concerns over Target's perception amongst consumers." Based on its own analysis, UBS says Target has lost 14% of its shoppers over the past two years, and that 31% of the remainder are spending less. "This isn't what one might expect from a discount business in a recession." 3 Comments

• Thursday, September 3, 2009

• 09:51 AM Retailers' same-store sales fell for the 12th straight month (I, II, III, IV, V), but results at Target (TGT +1.4%), Kohl's (KSS +1.5%) and Gap (GPS +5%) topped analyst expectations. Weak spots included Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF -3.8%) and Family Dollar Stores (FDO -8.4%). Still, the decline was smaller than July's. SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) is +0.5% to $31.36. 4 Comments
• 08:40 AM SSS #4: Stage Stores (SSI) -9.5% vs. -5.7%. TJX Cos (TJX) +5% vs. +3.8%. Cato Corp (CTR) +5% vs. +2%. JC Penney (JCP) -7.9% vs. -6.8%. Nordstrom (JWN) -7.6% vs. -9.5%. Target (TGT) -2.9% vs. -5.2%. Comment!