Gap and Dick's Sports Goods on focus

Tuesday left markets around the world waiting for some light upon macroeconomic hints on a real recovery.

While Ebola's shadow is still overflying main markets in Europe and the US, Japan and China are closely following the regional governments ‘decisions on pensions and industrial production.

Analysts at ‘GuruFocus’ set their sights on Gap (GPS) as the San Francisco-based retailer “released decent results for the second quarter. The company performed better than the first quarter, but also suffered weakness in the margin due to higher operating expenses. However, Gap thinks this is a short term worry, and is expecting better results in the future.”

“Gap is seeing growing traction for its apparel even in a challenging retail environment. It is taking various initiatives to improve customer traffic in its stores. With the future looking bright, its expansion in potential markets such as India can be a bright spot,” they added.

On another note, Zacks Equity Research highlighted that “Dick's Sporting Goods Inc.’s expansion strategy is in full swing” as the athletic apparel retailer announced Tuesday that it will open three new stores, two in California and one in Michigan. Dick's Sporting currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (‘Sell’).

In Japan, main benchmark indexes in Tokyo fell back after a record one-day rally in more than a year. Despite the yen's gain, market indexes fell back after surging on the speculation that the government pension fund is set to increase its stock allocation. The indexes traded lower after a record one-day surge in more than a year and investors digested better-than-expected economic and industrial production data from China.

Pal Co., Ltd fell 0.5 percent to 3,230 yen after the apparel retailer reported net sales in the first-half ending in August jumped 6.6 percent to 51.70 billion yen from 48.49 billion yen a year ago period. Net income in the quarter surged 45.9 percent to 2.03 billion yen compared to 1.39 billion yen and earnings per share jumped to 92.45 yen from 63.37 yen in the same period a year ago.