American retailer earnings highlights
All numbers beneath are in U.S. {dollars}.
- Nordstrom (JWN/NYSE): Earnings per share have been $0.33 (versus a predicted $0.22), and revenues have been $3.46 billion (versus a predicted $3.35 billion).
- City Outfitters (URBN/NYSE): Incomes per share at $1.10 (versus a predicted $0.85), and it posted revenues of $1.18 billion (versus an estimate of $1.16 billion).
- Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF/NYSE): Incomes per share at $2.50 (versus a predicted $2.30), and it posted revenues of $1.21 billion (versus an estimate of $1.19 billion).
One other stable quarter for U.S. client spending on clothes was overshadowed by the very fact Macy’s needed to delay its earnings announcement on account of uncovering a massive fraud situation. A single worker is reported to have stolen greater than $130 million from the corporate over the previous few years. For context, that quantity is sort of equal to the shop’s complete revenue for your complete final quarter/
Macy’s is hoping the nostalgia of its Thanksgiving Day Parade shortly adjustments the channel from the embarrassing lack of managerial oversight, in addition to the very fact the inventory took a 4% value hit on the information.
Earnings beats generated a muted response from the marketplace for the opposite three clothes retailers. A lot of the excellent news seems to be baked into costs within the type of excessive expectations. Abercrombie & Fitch continues to “rise from the lifeless” (on this case “the lifeless” is clothes manufacturers from my teenage years) and is up greater than 90% during the last twelve months.
All three corporations commented on the power of the U.S. client, and elevated freight costs that resulted from the port strikes early within the monetary quarter.
The very best on-line brokers, ranked and in contrast
What!? Me, fear?
Again within the dangerous ol’ days (not the great ol’ days) of June 2022, quickly after I began doing this column, I wrote about how I used to be fairly bullish on the inventory market’s route. That was primarily based on how over-the-top market commentators gave the impression to be. I are inclined to suppose, if everybody already thinks the sky is falling, then how a lot worse can it get?
The other seems to be true right now. “It feels just like the election was a spark that appears to have awoken the animal spirits,” Ben Carlson just lately wrote. “There’s pleasure within the air once more for traders.” It actually looks as if many imagine the sky won’t ever fall once more.
What are animal spirits?
Animal spirits is a time period utilized by economist John Maynard Keynes to elucidate irrational behaviour by traders. Conventional economics views individuals as rational beings who act logically primarily based on details. In actual life, nevertheless, investors often act on emotions, rumours or intestine intuition. Keynes attributes this behaviour to individuals having “animal spirits.”
Learn the complete definition of animal spirits within the MoneySense Glossary of finance and investing phrases.
Carlson ought to be an skilled on such a investor sentiment, since he has a 400-episode podcast truly known as Animal Spirits. And as proof to show his level, Carlson cites the current post-2008 file for amount of cash flowing into the inventory market:

Most of the world’s greatest funding banks weighed in. They’re predicting reasonably optimistic returns subsequent yr (the S&P 500 is at present at about 6,000).
Prelim roundup of Wall Road’s S&P 500 2025 year-end targets:
6,000: Jefferies6,400: UBS
6,500: Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs
6,586: CFRA
6,600: RBC, Barclays
6,700: BMO
6,500-6,700: Wells Fargo Inv Institute
7,000: Yardeni, CapEcon, Deutsche Financial institution
— Sam Ro (@samro.bsky.social) November 25, 2024 at 12:05 PM
There’s no query the possible Republican adjustments—together with tax cuts, promised regulatory adjustments, AI hypothesis and easy momentum-based investor psychology—have modified the “vibecession” right into a vibe-rally or vibe-boom. (We’re nonetheless workshopping what to name it when sentiment of the economic system rides over its knowledge).