What to Watch Friday: Investors Will Be Checking Out Retail Sales
On Friday TheStreet will highlight several economic reports on the agenda.
We'll begin the day with the producer price index (PPI), a key piece of economic data since it's an indicator of inflation.
Monthly retail sales will also be released Friday morning, followed by business inventories and consumer sentiment.
The report that investors will be paying close attention to is retail sales. On Wednesday, retail stocks were rocked by Macy's (M) - Get Reportdisappointing sales results. Even though earnings came in at $0.56 a share, beating analysts' estimates of $0.53 a share, the company's sales of $5.87 billion fell short of estimates of $6.09 billion.
The company pointed to the strong dollar and warmer than usual climate for it quarterly same-store sales slump. Specifically, quarterly sales dropped 5.2% year-over-year.
On top of this, Macy's slashed its full-year earnings outlook. It now expects to earn between the range of $4.20 to $4.30 a share, down from its previous forecast of $4.70 to $4.80 a share.
Following Macy's dismal earnings report, financial services firm Cowen predicted more disappointing news from other retailers, including as Urban Outfitters (URBN) - Get Report , Michael Kors (KORS) , and Tiffany (TIF) - Get Report according to Barron's. However, Kohl's (KSS) - Get Report on Thursday morning released robust third-quarter results that exceeded analysts' projections.
Regarding the monthly retail sales report, TheStreet's Portfolio Analyst Scott Berman said, "It's been an extremely warm October so investors are not expecting a strong (retail sales) number."
On the earnings front, the major company we're expecting to get numbers from is J.C. Penney (JCP) - Get Report . Investors will want to see if the Texas-based retailer will be affected by the overall retail gloom.
TheStreet's U-Jin Lee reports in New York.