[furrydog]

January Bleak for Retail; Wal-Mart Hit Hard
Updated from 8:55 a.m. EST
January sales were chilly for most of the nation's major retailers, with many big chains posting results Thursday that were worse than already dismal expectations.

The bleak sales data indicated that a shopping slowdown in the holiday season continued into the new year. Consumers, hit by rising oil prices, an ongoing housing slump and a weakening job market, have reined in spending and contributed to worries of a broader economic recession.

According to Thomson Financial, chain stores' total same-store sales inched up just 0.3% last month, worse than expectations for a 1% rise.

A particularly weak showing from the nation's larget retailer, Wal-Mart (WMT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), weighed on those sales-weighted figures. Excluding Wal-Mart, Thomson's data showed that average January same-store sales were up 0.2%, compared with expectations for a 0.1% rise.

http://www.thestreet.com/s/january-blea ... &cm_ite=NA

[furrydog]

More layoffs expected in the retail sector.

Who's Hiring, Who's Firing, 3:22 p.m. PT
Losing Their Shirts: Retail Giants Plan Layoffs, Store Closures

February is shaping up to be a bad month for shopping fans but an interesting one for retail recruiters, as a rash of layoffs and store closings point to weaker-than-expected January retail sales and a pessimistic outlook for the future.

William Dreher, a Deutsche Bank research analyst, wrote in a report last week that as the economy begins to improve in the second half of 2008, "we expect several of our department store shares could do very well, including Kohl's and Macy's, though we are not pounding the table here yet." In fact, the report upgraded the department store and mass merchant sector to neutral from cautious.

http://www.ere.net/inside-recruiting/ne ... 181784.asp

[LoneSnark]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')ccording to Thomson Financial, chain stores' total same-store sales inched up just 0.3% last month, worse than expectations for a 1% rise.