Retailers Get No Help from Consumers

by The Investment U Research Team

After almost a full week of declines, futures finally point to a positive opening for Wall Street. But where does that leave us – other than shell-shocked?

We saw a couple of reports this morning that illustrate just how much consumers are cutting back on their spending. Costco (Nasdaq: COST) reported a 6% drop in sales.

Considering they are a leading warehouse club, where you would expect consumers to shop for bargains, the drop is significant. Consumers aren’t giving any help to retailers.

And they’re not the only ones hurting.

Department store J.C. Penny (NYSE: JCP) saw same store sales drop 8.2%, while luxury retailer Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) saw sales drop 10%. So what does it all mean?

It means that the engine of capitalist growth, which has for decades been the consumer, is not willing, ready, or even able to push us out of this recession just yet.

The market may have made a psychological turn in March, but the economy is much farther away from making that move. In the meantime, the churning and market volatility will provide a day traders dream and a buy and hold investor’s nightmare.

Symbols mentioned in this article: COST, JCP and JWN.

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