By William Spain
U.S. retail stocks moved higher Thursday, with the sector's main
indicator getting a lift even as a mixed bag of March sales results
meant the gains weren't spread out equally.
The S&P Retail Index (RLX) rose 4% to 327.06.
Shares of Wal-Mart (WMT), however, weren't among the winners,
falling almost 4% to $50.69. Before the start of trading, the
company said same-store sales in the U.S. rose just 1.4% last
month, excluding fuel, lower than the increase of 3.2% forecast by
analysts participating in a Thomson Reuters survey.
The world's largest retailer said net sales for the five weeks
ended April 3 fell 1.9% to $36.2 billion. And, Wal-Mart said it
expects first-quarter earnings from continuing operations to be
toward the high end of its range of 72 to 77 cents a share.
Meanwhile, rival Target (TGT) was up about 5% at $39.64, while
Costco Wholesale (COST) slipped 2% to $46.72.
Macy's (M) rose almost 15% to $11.81 after reporting that March
sales at stores open at least a year fell 9.2%. Analysts, on
average, had expected same-store sales to fall 9.3%, according to
Thomson Reuters. Total sales for the five weeks ended April 4
declined 9.8% to $1.931 billion, the company said.
Macy's said the March-April period should be viewed jointly, in
light of the shift in Easter from March last year to April this
year.
-William Spain; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com