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1:00pm (EST)
It’s another listless day on Wall Street as the market is trading at or near breakeven levels. The bulls appeared to have the slight edge heading into the open but futures failed to hold and the bears took advantage of the weakness. There are a number of earnings reports that showed consumer spending is still shaky and there is no major economic news due out so we aren’t surprised to see a flat day.
Retailers are still showing weakness and the latest big-box reports out of Target (TGT, $51.86, up $1.18) and BJ’s Wholesale (BJ, $41.60, down $1.71) failed to impress analysts.
Target reported a profit of $679 million, or $0.92 share, versus $594 million, or $0.79 a share, in the year-earlier period and matched expectations. Revenue came in at $15.5 billion which was slightly lower than the $15.6 billion Wall Street had predicted.
Shares traded in the red at the opening bell after the company lowered analysts’ forecasts and offered a muted outlook for sales, but, are now trading higher for the session. Target said in its conference call that it expects to offset weak sales with higher grocery sales and new discounts for credit card holders which helped reverse the losses but consumers are still cutting back.
BJ’s reported higher profits and hit expectations but lowered its 2010 profit target to $2.40-$2.50 a share, down from a mid-May forecast of $2.58-2.68 a share.
As we head to press, the Dow is lower by 5 points to 10,400 while the S&P 500 is fractionally higher at 1,093. The Nasdaq is up by 8 points to 2,217.
We have a lot to cover in our Members Area this afternoon and we have a number of trades on our Watch List that look juicy. It is only a matter of time before we start adding these low hanging fruits to our portfolio to replace the recent winners our subscribers have cashed in on. Check out our 2010 Portfolio that has been updated as of yesterday for our recently CLOSED trades. Subscribers, check for the updates!
