U.S. retail shares traded lower Monday, moving in the opposite direction from rising broader markets after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the 8.1% unemployment rate will rise.
The S&P Retail Index (RLX) fell 1.5% to 258.89 in late afternoon trading.
Bernanke said in a rare televised interview that while the U.S. recession will come to an end "probably this year," he warned the unemployment rate will rise. The jobless rate, at its highest in over a quarter century, has been one of the key factors hurting consumer demand and sentiment.
In other economic news that signaled weakness in the economy, industrial production fell for the fourth straight month with the decline worse than expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. Meanwhile, U.S. home builders remained discouraged about their business in March, according to a monthly survey by industry trade group the National Association of Home Builders.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) shares fell 0.2% to $49.10. Wal-Mart, a Dow Jones Industrial Average member and the world's largest retailer, plans to convert two of its Neighborhood Market stores to supermarkets specifically targeting the Hispanic population.
Shares of Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD), owner of Kmart and its namesake department store chain, declined 3.5% to $38.53. Sears said late Friday it's unifying its multichannel services under ShopYourWay, which includes services and features such as Web to store pick-ups and comparison shopping of the top eight appliance brands.
-Andria Cheng; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=StXlfP8AHGRffk1%2FkrsLOA%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 16, 2009 15:38 ET (19:38 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 03 38 PM EDT 03-16-09
Monday, March 16, 2009
Bernanke Reminds of the Unemployment Reality; Equity Market Retreats from Intraday Highs
U.S. retail shares traded lower Monday, moving in the opposite direction from rising broader markets after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the 8.1% unemployment rate will rise.
The S&P Retail Index (RLX) fell 1.5% to 258.89 in late afternoon trading.
Bernanke said in a rare televised interview that while the U.S. recession will come to an end "probably this year," he warned the unemployment rate will rise. The jobless rate, at its highest in over a quarter century, has been one of the key factors hurting consumer demand and sentiment.
In other economic news that signaled weakness in the economy, industrial production fell for the fourth straight month with the decline worse than expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. Meanwhile, U.S. home builders remained discouraged about their business in March, according to a monthly survey by industry trade group the National Association of Home Builders.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) shares fell 0.2% to $49.10. Wal-Mart, a Dow Jones Industrial Average member and the world's largest retailer, plans to convert two of its Neighborhood Market stores to supermarkets specifically targeting the Hispanic population.
Shares of Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD), owner of Kmart and its namesake department store chain, declined 3.5% to $38.53. Sears said late Friday it's unifying its multichannel services under ShopYourWay, which includes services and features such as Web to store pick-ups and comparison shopping of the top eight appliance brands.
-Andria Cheng; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=StXlfP8AHGRffk1%2FkrsLOA%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 16, 2009 15:38 ET (19:38 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 03 38 PM EDT 03-16-09
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4 comments:
I think the rate is a farce, it's prob above 15% today.
Jeremy
Another great call on SRS guys. My calls shot up 120% in the last hour alone. Loving it!
Cheers, Adam.
SRS, ya how are you doing today.
What is your target on SRS? The dividends on the REITs are quite high -there was a Bloomberg article metioning that historically the dividends are only 2% higher than the risk free rate.
Do you expect the REITs to start cutting dividends? How much further can Comm Real Estate fall?
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