Retail Winners & Losers: Wal-Mart

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Retail shares are soaring as the Dow Jones Industrial Average continues its march above 10,000 on renewed hope for earnings reports this week.

The S&P Retail Index is gaining 1% to 397.08 in afternoon trading, led by some big movers in the department store sector and Wal-Mart Stores(WMT Quote).

Wal-Mart shares advanced 1.1% to $51.81. Last week, the discounter announced that it will slash prices on highly-anticipated pre-releases, putting it in direct competition with Amazon.com(AMZN Quote).

Meanwhile, a holiday survey conducted by Citigroup(C Quote) indicated that department stores will be a popular destination for holiday shopping, with 56% of respondents saying they will go to retailers like Macy's(M Quote), Kohl's(KSS Quote) and J.C. Penney (JCP Quote) to stock up on their gifts.

Shares in that sub-sector are up sharply, with Macy's gaining 2% to $20.22, Saks(SKS Quote) advancing 4.4% to $6.58, Dillard's (DDS Quote) rising 4.7% to $15.25 and Nordstrom(JWM Quote) increasing 5.4% to $36.26.

On Friday, Nordstrom was upgraded to buy from neutral by Sterne Agee following the launch of its Twilight merchandise.

Other notable gainers include Netflix(NFLX Quote), which is jumping 2.1% to $50.02, Aeropostale(ARO Quote), which is popping 2.6% to $42.30 and RadioShack (RSH Quote), which is up 2.5% to $15.89.

But several retailers were in the red. Shares of both Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF Quote) and New York & Company (NWY Quote) were downgraded on Monday by Brean Murray, Carret & Co.

Analyst Eric Beder lowered Abercombie & Fitch to sell from hold saying the teen retailer's current valuation is rosier than what he thinks the company will achieve.