Do-It-Yourself Boost for Economy

Strong second-quarter revenue growth at home improvement giants Home Depot(HD Quote) and Lowe's(LOW Quote) should dampen recent speculation that the economy could be falling into another recession, retail analysts say.

"It's very unlikely we're going to see a recession right now," said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consultant firm. "The economy had clearly hit a speed bump in early June at the peaking of gas [pump] prices ... If there was going to be a recession, these top-line numbers would be low-single digits instead of high-double digits."

Home Depot reported Tuesday that second-quarter sales jumped 11% to $19.96 billion with earnings excluding items of 71 cents a share. That easily surpassed the consensus estimate for 64 cents a share. Lowe's said Monday sales spiked 17.4% to $10.17 billion, while EPS rose to 89 cents from 75 cents in the year-earlier quarter. ...