Things aren't looking so luxurious for the shareholders of Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN) and Saks Inc. (NYSE: SKS) today. Shares of both of these upscale department-store chains are seeing red today following negative words from Wall Street. As Eric Buscemi noted this morning, JWN was cut to "underperform" from "neutral" at Banc of America/Merrill Lynch. Nordstrom was also sliced to "neutral" from "outperform" at Credit Suisse, citing valuation and concerns about the environment for mall anchors. Credit Suisse did maintain its price target of $22.
Meanwhile, Credit Suisse brought down the downgrade hammer on Saks as well, moving its opinion to "underperform" from "neutral" and referencing negative cash flow at several locations.
SKS is currently down 7.5%; JWN is down 3.5% in midday trading.
This past weekend, my husband and I went on a semi-annual shopping trip to the outlet mall and the regular mall. The former, which we hit right as it opened, was incredibly crowded. People were parked on the grass and lines were too long to try anything on (resulting in a most unfortunate skirt purchase on my part). The regular mall, however, had light traffic at 3:00 p.m. on Memorial Day weekend. Our experience, an admitted microcosm, suggested that people are shopping again, but they are shopping for bargains. And SKS and JWN arguably have neither.
Beth works for The Options News Network (www.ONN.tv), which provides daily options commentary. The above comments are not intended as trading advice.
SKS is currently down 7.5%; JWN is down 3.5% in midday trading.
This past weekend, my husband and I went on a semi-annual shopping trip to the outlet mall and the regular mall. The former, which we hit right as it opened, was incredibly crowded. People were parked on the grass and lines were too long to try anything on (resulting in a most unfortunate skirt purchase on my part). The regular mall, however, had light traffic at 3:00 p.m. on Memorial Day weekend. Our experience, an admitted microcosm, suggested that people are shopping again, but they are shopping for bargains. And SKS and JWN arguably have neither.
Beth works for The Options News Network (www.ONN.tv), which provides daily options commentary. The above comments are not intended as trading advice.
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