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September 2, 2014 The Family Dollar board is under new pressure to walk away from a deal with Dollar Tree after Dollar General further increased an already more generous counter offer. Early Monday Dollar General increased its all cash offer to $80 a share from $78.50 a share and increased the number of stores it... Read more »

August 28, 2014 An increased risk of an emerging El Nino and a continuation of warmer than normal ocean waters in the Atlantic will produce warmer and wetter conditions along the East Coast along with an elevated tropical system risk.  The total number of tropical systems will be reduced overall, but should a storm threaten... Read more »

August 28, 2014 The Multifamily Production Index (MPI), a leading indicator for the multifamily market released by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), posted a gain of five points to a reading of 58 for the second quarter.  It is the 10th straight quarter with a reading of 50 or above. The MPI measures builder... Read more »

August 26, 2014 The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had increased in July, improved further in August.  The Index now stands at 92.4, up from 90.3 in July.  The Present Situation Index increased to 94.6 from 87.9, while the Expectations Index edged down to 90.9 from 91.9 in July. Says Lynn Franco, Director of... Read more »

August 28, 2014 Dollar General made the case for the superiority of its Family Dollar takeover bid with the release of second quarter results that revealed consistency as well as some deceleration in sales and profit growth. Sales at the company’s more than 11,500 stores increased 7.5% to slightly more than $4.7 billion due to... Read more »

August 25, 2014 Sales of newly built, single-family homes fell 2.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 412,000 units in July, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.  Sales Numbers for June were revised up 16,000 to 422,000. “We are somewhat... Read more »

August 14, 2014 Walmart met low second quarter sales and profit expectations it set for itself, but significantly lowered its full year outlook due to a tepid third quarter sales forecast and increased e-commerce and health care costs. Total company sales increased 2.8% to $119.3 billion while same store sales at U.S. stores and Sam’s... Read more »

August 22, 2014 Although same-store sales at Gap were flat in the second quarter, the company reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, buoyed by strong sales at Old Navy, and raised its full-year profit forecast as a result. Net profit rose to $332 million in the quarter from $303 million a year ago. Revenue increased 3%... Read more »

August 21, 2014 Describing second quarter earnings as “unacceptable,” Sears Holdings chairman and CEO Edward Lampert added that his company’s transformation is continuing and online sales are growing. The company reported second quarter net loss of $573 million, compared with a loss of $194 million in the same quarter last year.  Revenues decreased $858 million... Read more »