Poor results at A&F and Sears spike fears on weak Christmas

Last wave of corporate

results for apparel retailers in the US have prompted renewed concerns on weaker than desired Christmas sales. Leading companies in the trade have risen their worries on the how the intense discount policies aimed to lure consumers might affect their results in the long term.

Target joined Sears and Gap to report weaker-than-expected results for the quarter, posting a 0.9 percent improvement in like-for-like sales in the US market, behind analysts’ average forecast. The apparel retailer blamed its poor performance on its foray in Canada. Target’s stock felt the pain and shredded 3.7 percent to 64.03 dollars a share on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, Sears reported a 534 million dollars net loss for the quarter ended on November 2 on declining like-for-like sales (- 3.1 percent.) Sears shares mirrored Target’s ones behaviour and were also down, dropping 1.5 percent to 60.79 dollars after the quarterly results broke.

Abercrombie & Fitch was the third in reporting gloomy figures, noting a 15 million dollars net loss and a 14 percent fall in like-for-like sales in local market. The teen apparel retailer has been warning about the clouds that might jeopardise a merry Christmas for the US retail for the past months, advancing that it expected weak sales to continue for the rest of the year. The stock edged up 0.3 percent though, thanks to te hope sthat investors are putting into the company’s earnings per share forecast.

Finally, some light thrown by Gap, which reported a 9.4 percent increase in third-quarter earnings as the fashion retailer's turnaround continues. Nevertheless, its shares slipped 1.1 percent in after-hours trading to 41.40 dollars a share.