U.S. Retail Sales Mixed In April
Monthly sales report better than expected.
According to a preliminary tally from Thomson Financial, 19 retailers beat estimates, while 9 missed. The tally is based on same-store sales, or business at stores open as least a year, they are considered a key indicator of a retailer's health.
Wal-Mart, which is rolling out more discounts, reported a 3.2 percent gain in same-store sales. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a 2.1 percent gain. Including fuel, same store sales climbed 3.8 percent.
The world's largest retailer said business was helped by strong sales in grocery and health items as well as entertainment products like flat-panel TV's, video games and game consoles. The company said apparel sales continued to recover, despite cold weather, but home furnishings sales were weak.
Rival Target Corp. posted a 3.1 percent gain in same-store, below the 4.5 percent estimate, as consumers shopped for necessities such as food and skipped higher-priced items such as jewelry.
Costco reported an 8 percent increase in same-store sales, surpassing the 6.1 percent estimate.
Among department stores Penney reported a 1.7 percent decline in same-store sales, though that was better than the 4.6 percent decline analysts expected. The top-performing merchandising areas in April were apparel and family footwear, while fine jewelry and home categories continued to experience weaker sales.
For a country that's in a recession our retail sale are pretty good. 19 retailers beat estimates 9 missed.That means that 68% of the retailers did better than expected. They did better than the analysts expected. That means the professional analysts were wrong 68 percent of the time in the month of April.
Now I would like you to read this article because even though the facts are positive the writers opinions are negative. When a writer has a agenda they will cover the good positive news with negative comments. So when you read an article look for the facts and throw away the trash.
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Technorati Tags: Recession Economy Retail Sales
Monthly sales report better than expected.
According to a preliminary tally from Thomson Financial, 19 retailers beat estimates, while 9 missed. The tally is based on same-store sales, or business at stores open as least a year, they are considered a key indicator of a retailer's health.
Wal-Mart, which is rolling out more discounts, reported a 3.2 percent gain in same-store sales. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a 2.1 percent gain. Including fuel, same store sales climbed 3.8 percent.
The world's largest retailer said business was helped by strong sales in grocery and health items as well as entertainment products like flat-panel TV's, video games and game consoles. The company said apparel sales continued to recover, despite cold weather, but home furnishings sales were weak.
Rival Target Corp. posted a 3.1 percent gain in same-store, below the 4.5 percent estimate, as consumers shopped for necessities such as food and skipped higher-priced items such as jewelry.
Costco reported an 8 percent increase in same-store sales, surpassing the 6.1 percent estimate.
Among department stores Penney reported a 1.7 percent decline in same-store sales, though that was better than the 4.6 percent decline analysts expected. The top-performing merchandising areas in April were apparel and family footwear, while fine jewelry and home categories continued to experience weaker sales.
For a country that's in a recession our retail sale are pretty good. 19 retailers beat estimates 9 missed.That means that 68% of the retailers did better than expected. They did better than the analysts expected. That means the professional analysts were wrong 68 percent of the time in the month of April.
Now I would like you to read this article because even though the facts are positive the writers opinions are negative. When a writer has a agenda they will cover the good positive news with negative comments. So when you read an article look for the facts and throw away the trash.
2
Technorati Tags: Recession Economy Retail Sales
quote:
ReplyDelete"For a country that's in a recession our retail sale are pretty good. 19 retailers beat estimates 9 missed.That means that 68% of the retailers did better than expected."
Two quick things:
First, the U.S. economy is not in a recession (by definition).
Second, even if we were in a recession the fact that retailers did better than projected does not convey good news (or bad news) about the state of the economy. It only shows that the projections were made incorrectly - a highly probable cause would be analyst's expectations of a recession.
-mm