Solid news in the retail sector helped allay some investor concerns, at least for a day, though a late selloff in the Dow Jones Industrial Average kept all three major indices from moving ahead for Tuesday.
Meanwhile bond yields, which had moved up to 2.9% for the 10-Year Treasury, slipped just enough to alleviate fears of inflation.
The Nasdaq surged ahead 0.68% to 3613.59, and the S&P 500 closing ahead 0.38% to 1652.35, with both ending a four-day slide. The Dow lost ground late in the day to extend its losing streak to five days, closing lower by 0.05% at 15,002.99.
Leading the charge in retail and continuing its comeback was Best Buy (), racing ahead nearly 14% on positive second-quarter earnings. For Q2, BBY earned 32 cents per share, ahead of last year’s 26 cents and easily trumping analyst estimates for 12 cents. Revenues were flat at $9.3 billion, but ahead of the consensus forecast for $9.1 billion.
Urban Outfitters () jumped more than 8% after the company reported a 21% rise in income for the second quarter,to 51 cents per share, ahead of analyst estimates for 48 cents. Revenues rose 12% for the period to $758 million, falling below estimates of $768 million. TJX () was up about 7% on a strong quarter as well.
Home Depot announced Q2 revenues that grew 10% year-over-year, as well as same-store sales also up 10% in that time, and earnings shot up 17% to best the consensus. HD rounded out the good news with an 8-cent-per-share bump to its full-year guidance, but still sold off by more than 1% by day’s end.
JCPenney () managed to get into the act, too, rising nearly 6% despite a worse-than-expected loss and slower sales in the second quarter compared to last year.
However, bookseller
Barnes & Noble () bucked the retail trend, slumping more than 12% to its lowest close since February after reporting a nearly 10% drop in same-store sales for its first quarter, a loss of $1.59 per share compared to 76 cents per share last year, and an 8.5% drop in revenues. Chairman Leonard Riggio also said he was tabling any plans to buy the company’s retail stores. BKS shares are down more than 30% in the past three months.
Earnings notables for Wednesday include Hewlett-Packard (), Staples () and Target ().
Three Up
- Trina Solar (): Up 15.3% ($1.04 cents) to $7.82
- Goodrich Petroleum (): Up 11.1% ($2.31) to $23.16
- Consol Energy (): Up 4.9% ($1.48) to $31.73
Three Down
- Dick’s Sporting Goods (): Down 7.8% ($3.95) to $46.64
- Zillow (): Down 4.7% ($3.95) to $80.79
- Alcatel-Lucent (): Down 4.2% (11 cents) to $2.54
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
