Sears Filing Chapter 11 Sears Holding (SHLD) made it official yesterday, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This is the company that once sold home building kits to Americans from its famous catalogs. Sears was known for its Craftsman and Kenmore brands. Discover Card (DFS), the innovative cash back credit card; was launched by Sears […]
Consider me back at the helm of My Gut Feeling. Thanks of course to my wife for help publishing My Gut Feeling during my recuperation. Earnings season for the most part came to an end last week with a flurry of retail companies reporting results. With some few exceptions, those earnings stunk. They reflect: disruption […]
This week, major US retailers will be reporting results for the holiday quarter, which for most companies ended on January 31. Aside from the Nordstrom / Ivanka Trump silliness; we need to ponder as to where Americans are shopping and what are they buying. Here is what I am forecasting: Apparel, as I have been […]
The end of January saw the markets eat up some overbought conditions. February began on a strong note on the back of January’s labor report. All told, the Kahunas put in a positive performance, with the exception of Amazon (AMZN). There is a clear trend which is becoming more apparent and worrisome for a certain […]
I had a rather busy week. Much of it was retail / consumer themed. It started on Tuesday with an interview on NJTV. The subject was a recent NJ Business survey. http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365909237/ Then on Wednesday I spent a long yet exciting day on the Island of Manhattan. It all begin at Bloomberg Radio studios for a live […]
Let me begin by drawing your attention to my annual take on the retail sector which was published on Forbes yesterday. After the post-election rally, we seem to have stalled a bit. This is evident from the muted reaction to Friday’s labor report. Overnight futures declined as the Euro slumped following a “No” vote to […]
As I said on Facebook (FB), “I went to a door buster sale but they were out of busted doors.” All kidding aside, early results for Black Friday weekend shopping indicate that consumers spent on average about 3.5% less than a year ago. These figures include both online and in-store purchases. 4% more consumers shopped […]
When you take a step back and look at February, we went from a steep decline in the early part of the month to close nearly unchanged. The real heroes leading the rebound were consumer discretionary stocks – retailers and restaurants; both of which struggled in 2015. This ratifies my belief that the economy is […]
Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the commencement of the holiday shopping season have kept me rather busy with the media. Seton Hall University has done a nice job summarizing some of those articles and interviews as of Monday. Then yesterday, an interview with NJ.com was also published. My own anecdotal research indicates that Thanksgiving evening […]
It is nice to be back to writing after recuperating from my hand surgery. Today was the first day that I could type with both hands. The surgery went well and after lunch today I should have the stitches removed. However, like the Mets, I am going to have to wait till spring to get back […]
