Sears: hopefully a place where America still shops

All eyes will be on Sears Holdings (NYSE:SHLD) next Thursday when it reports Q3 earnings. One could call it a "multi-tiered" evaluation, as SHLD's report has meaning on several levels.

First, there's the company-specific turnaround story. Traders and analysts will want to see if the momentum from chairman Eddie Lambert's company restructuring continued in Q3. Lambert took on the difficult task of closing underperforming stores – many of which were long-standing, well-regarded stores in their communities – while also rightsizing SHLD's workforce, and integrating the acquired Kmart discount outlets.

Then there are the Sears' retail sector implications: analysts will use Sears' Q3 report as another data point/barometer regarding the U.S. retail sector's health heading into the pivotal Q4 holiday shopping season, For Q3, Sears, which traded Thursday at about $174.75, is expected to post modest flat-to-modest-growth in same store sales of about $11.8B on EPS of 98c.

Finally, there's the old economy / new economy dimension. The Sears restructuring effort serves as a case study regarding the ability of an old economy retail chain to make the transition to the new retail world of shopping online and viewing dazzling displays of products via streaming video right on your pc. Wall Street will want to see some progress regarding online traffic and sales versus Sears' primary competitors, JC Penney (JCP), Target (TGT), and Wal-Mart (WMT). A failure to show a modest improvement in online sales and traffic may give Wall Street cause for concern regarding Sears' ability to attract online shoppers in the decade ahead.

Hence, from a variety of standpoints, Sears' Q3 report next week will be awaited with keen interest, and cautious optimism, that better days are ahead for both shoppers and investors.

Post provided by Joseph Lazzaro and TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).