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February 27, 2014 As far as sales go, Sears Holdings didn’t have a very happy holiday.  But the company was still able to narrow its loss for the fourth quarter, as it lowered expenses and reduced inventory. The company said the costs of transforming into a member-centric retailer using an integrated online platform and the... Read more »

February 26, 2014 In a sign of some progress in its turnaround efforts, J.C. Penney reported a net profit of $35 million for the fourth quarter ended February 1, compared to a loss of $552 million a year ago.  Excluding a tax benefit and other items, Penney had a loss of $206 million for the... Read more »

February 26, 2014 Target continues to cope with the fallout of a data breach, which, as expected, hurt the company’s fourth quarter results.  The company incurred $61 million in expenses related to the breach during the quarter, but was able to bring the total impact to $17 million after applying a $44 million insurance payment.... Read more »

February 25, 2014 Since Office Depot completed its merger transaction with Office Max November 5, 2013, the company has been aggressively executing its integration plan.  The company’s fourth quarter results for the period ended December 28, 2013 include OfficeMax’s operations, which generated $939 million of sales. Chairman and CEO Roland Smith said that the company... Read more »

February 27, 2014 Weather Trends International expects March 2014 to trend similar in temperature to last year and below normal for the U.S. as a whole.  The month starts out with cold, possibly record-breaking in the North, along with some potentially snowy and/or icy weather as a storm system moves through.  Colder trends linger into... Read more »

February 25, 2014 The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had increased in January, fell moderately in February.  The Index now stands at 78.1, down from 79.4 in January.  The decline was driven by the Expectations Index, which dropped to 75.7 from 80.8.  The Present Situation Index, by contrast, climbed from 77.3 to 81.7. “Consumer... Read more »

February 25, 2014 Despite an 11% profit increase in the fourth quarter, sales at Macy’s missed forecasts as ongoing winter storms hurt the retailer’s results in January. Macy’s reported net income of $811 million during the fourth quarter, up 5% from $730 million in the same period a year earlier.  Sales dropped 1.6% to $9.2... Read more »

February 26, 2014 Severe winter weather was no match for Lowe’s in the fourth quarter.  The company reported sales of $11.7 billion, up 5.6% from the same quarter last year, as comps increased 3.9%.  The company also posted fourth-quarter net earnings of $306 million, up 6.3%. “During the quarter, we delivered solid performance in core... Read more »

February 25, 2014 Although the Home Depot’s overall sales missed analysts’ expectations, the retailer said the calendar shift, which resulted in one fewer week in the fourth quarter compared to the prior year quarter, affected its results. The world’s largest home improvement retailer reported fourth quarter total sales of $17.7 billion, down 3% from the... Read more »