Retail Winners: Borders, CVS, Amazon
(Retail winners updated with Nordstrom and Dollar General stock price movement.)
NEW YORK (
) -- Retailers are in the green even as debt concerns continue to plague the hopes of a global economic recovery.
Borders
(BGP)
, for one, topped New York Stock Exchange's list of biggest advancers on seemingly no company-related news whatsoever.
Borders continued its gains from last week after billionaire investor
of Pershing Square Capital told CNBC that Borders has a low chance of filing for bankruptcy and is a better stock pick than rival
Barnes & Noble
(BKS) - Get Report
.
Shares of Borders are soaring 8.6% to $1.26 in afternoon trading, while Barnes & Noble is falling 2% to $19.46.
Barnes & Noble said earlier today that its Nook e-reader will be available in most stores by the middle of the week, after selling out over the holidays.
Both Barnes & Noble and Borders have faced increased competition from e-readers, like
Amazon's
(AMZN) - Get Report
Kindle.
In fact, Amazon was upgraded to a buy rating at Collins Stewart on the strength of the Kindle and e-book market. Analyst Sandeep Aggarwal estimates that Amazon will sell 3.85 million Kindles this year -- and, if true, that would show a profit of $650 million on $2.5 billion in sales.
Despite the good news, however, shares of Amazon are slipping 0.5% to $116.85 in afternoon trading.
Home Depot
(HD) - Get Report
was also
lifted to overweight from equal weight by Morgan Stanley
, sending shares advancing 2% to $28.54.
The bank said it is optimistic about Home Depot's outlook going forward and the turn in the housing market should increase the company's traffic and same-store sales.
Rival
Lowe's
(LOW) - Get Report
is also increasing 0.7% to $21.74.
Nordstrom
(JWN) - Get Report
received an upgrade over the weekend by BMO Capital markets to market perform from underperform.
Analyst Wayne Hood cited the upscale department store's strong sales and earnings growth, as well as its strong operating discipline, as the reason for the upgrade.
Still shares of Nordstrom remain relatively flat at $34.05.
CVS Caremark
(CVS) - Get Report
is on the rise after it reported fourth-quarter sales that topped that of rivals
Walgreen
(WAG)
and
Rite Aid
(RAD) - Get Report
, and released a
2010 outlook that could beat Wall Street's forecast
.
Shares of the drugstore are spiking 5.2% to $32.67.
Another notable gainer is
Dollar General
(DG) - Get Report
, which is growing 3.4% to $22.44.
Last week, the discounter announced that it will hire 5,000 and open 600 stores during the year.
-- Reported by Jeanine Poggi in New York.
RELATED STORIES:
>>Home Depot Remains Top Analyst Pick
>>CVS Spikes As Sales Top Drugstore Rivals
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