Retail stocks fell 1.2 percent last week as Wall Street considered anemic same-store sales and the possibility that recent share increases may have been overdone.
The S&P Retail Index finished the week at 366, down 4.35 points. The major indices also pulled back, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average off 1.1 percent to 9,441.27 and the S&P 500 down 1.2 percent to 2,018.78.
Of 172 issues tracked by WWD, 50 were up, four were flat and a solid majority of 118 were down.
The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. continued its recent run-up, picking up 27 percent to $7.80. Oxford Industries Inc. enjoyed a 24 percent for the week, to $17.91, after reporting second-quarter results that were strongly ahead of analysts’ expectations.
Comparable-store sales results, reported on Thursday, also figured in the final numbers. Aéropostale Inc., which led all retailers covered with a 9 percent increase in August comps, finished the week at $41.66, up 4.9
percent, while Kohl’s Corp., the only department store with a comp increase for the month, picked up 3.9 percent to $54.58 despite the modest size — 0.2 percent — of its August advance.
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American Apparel Inc.’s comps dipped 20 percent, and its shares finished the week at $3.53, down 7.8 percent. Shares of Quiksilver Inc. lost 19.7 percent of their value, closing at $2.36 Friday, after the firm reported that its third-quarter profits were off more than 50 percent.