Retail, Restaurant Stocks En Fuego as Results Look Promising

The retail and restaurant industries are absolutely on fire today as investors are desperately searching for a new area of the economy to lead us out of this downturn. Better-than-expected earnings reports in the groups are fueling this shift in sentiment today, and strong retail sales numbers, expected out by tomorrow, could further add to this upside.

The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSE: XRT), which acts as a broad-based measure of the entire sector, is up more than 3.2% today.

Here is a run-down of the news hitting the retail and restaurant sectors today and how related-stocks are performing:

• Bed Bath & Beyond (Nasdaq: BBBY) - up 22.4%. Reported Q4 EPS of $0.55, beating the Street's estimate by 11 cents. The stock was also upgraded by JP Morgan.
  
• Ruby Tuesday (NYSE: RT) - up 59%. Last night, issued a strong FY09 outlook with its Q3 earnings. The stock was also upgraded to Buy at KeyBanc this morning.
  
• Family Dollar (NYSE: FDO) - up 4.9%. Reported in-line Q2 earnings and also gave Q3 guidance that was better than the Street had been expecting.
  
• PriceSmart (Nasdaq: PSMT) - up 5.5%. Beat the Street on both Q2 EPS and sales. Same store sales during the quarter rose 13.6%.
  
• JoS. A. Bank Clothiers (Nasdaq: JOSB) - up 18%. Reported FY08 earnings that came in much better than analyst estimates.
  
• hhgregg (NYSE: HGG) - up 7.7%. Yesterday reported preliminary Q4 results and offered a FY09 EPS outlook that was much higher than the company's previous guidance.
  
• Finish Line (Nasdaq: FINL) - up 2.6%. Started at Buy by Stifel Nicolaus.
  
• American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO) - up 5.3%. Upgraded to Accumulate at Buckingham.
  
• Target (NYSE: TGT) - up 6.7%
  
• JCPenney (NYSE: JCP) - up 5%
  
• Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) - up 3.7%
  
• Home Depot (NYSE: HD) - up 2.7%
  
• Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) - up 9.7%
  
• Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD) - up 12.5%

You May Also Be Interested In

• Price choppiness and volatility is here to stay - BMO
• IMAC Holdings (BACK) halted on volatility, up 38%
• Tesla (TSLA) soars on Q1 print