While the sagging dollar and swooning stock market has made me more likely to shop at Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD) than at Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN), I am considering the 10 Things to Add a Glamorous, Global Twist to my looks.
Instead of stories about basketball players dropping $10k for a pair of shoes, Bloomberg is running a story on some short selling going on at Nordstrom.
The upscale retailer has embarked on an aggressive store expansion. The company will add 1.11 million square feet in 2008, more than twice that which was added in 2007. With that expansion in square footage has come an commensurate increase in short sales volume (those sold with the intention of betting on the stock price decreasing in JWN).
Analysts are fearing that while Nordstrom may have it going on in terms of hitting the fashion bulls-eye, such aggressive expansion may negatively affect the company. The same Bloomberg story quotes a Wall Street analyst who said that "slowdown in square-footage growth'' would make her more positive on the Nordstrom story.
Much as an astute investor in the stock market would use price pullbacks to add to positions he or she likes, Nordstrom is leveraging cut-backs in store expansions at competitors to land what it feels are prime locations for new stores.
With fears that the U.S. consumer will suffer more than he is presently, investors are nervous that store expansion may leave Nordstrom with a lot to sell and not a whole lot of buying going on.
Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.
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