Lululemon's shares tremble while Tom Tailor shines

Lululemon Athletica Inc.’s shares dropped almost 5 percent

in morning trading on Tuesday after analysts downgraded the stock and lowered their estimates following the retailer’s revelation late Monday that it expects a shortage of its trademark black stretchy yoga pants because of production problems.

The specialist in yoga apparel revealed earlier this week that it was recalling batches of pants it called too transparent. The company also advanced their intentions of pulling from its store shelves about 17 percent of the women's black pants made with its signature stretchy "Luon" fabric because the products fell short of technical specifications.

Alien to the Canadian retailer struggles, U.S. stocks closed mixed Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at rise, up by 3.8 points to 14,456; and both the Standard & Poor's and the Nasdaq Composite falling. Among the companies with shares actively trading after the close was Francesca's Holdings Corp. (FRAN). The company's shares rose as much as 7 percent to 29.40 dollars after the trading ceased.

In fact, Francesca´s Holdings reported quarterly results that beat Wall Street estimates, helped by margin improvement and strong demand for its affordable clothing and jewelry, published Bloomberg.

Finally, kudos to Tom Tailor, as the European fashion retailer saw its 2012 yearly sales over than doubled, encouraging the retailer to aim for sales in the region of 900 million.

“2012 was a notable year for Tom Tailor,” the company´s chairman when addressed the shareholders on Tuesday. “We celebrated our 50th anniversary and began a new chapter in our company’s history with the takeover of Bonita. With its two brands, the new Tom Tailor group operates around 1,300 own stores as well as 175 franchise stores across more than 35 countries. We are creating an infrastructure which will enable us to achieve economies of scale and increase profitability. We are aiming to achieve an EBITDA margin of 15 percent by 2017.”