Over the past week, people in the Northeast have been dealing with the after math of the blizzard that struck over the holiday weekend, but even worse hit are retailers that lost out on huge post-Christmas holiday shopping as people were forced to stay at home.

While it is impossible to put an exact number on just how much retailers lost out on, ShopperTrak, who tracks sales and customer traffic at over 70,000 stores and malls, estimated that retailers lost around $1 billion during the blizzard.

Earlier this year, General Growth Properties Inc. (GGP) rejected a $10 billion buyout offer from rival Simon Property Group (SPG), but Simon Property is not giving up completely. Wednesday Simon Property announced it would up its offer to $10 per share for GGP in exchange for 25% of the company.

The offer that was quickly rejected a couple of months ago placed a $9 value on GGP stock, and rose some anti-trust concerns.

Several national chains are talking up demands for reduced retail rents at locations across the country, according to a post in BNET.

That can't be good news for strapped mall operators, such as Simon Property Group (NYS: SPG), which have recently seen their fortunes turn upwards on the backs of analyst upgrades and economists calling a bottom to the Great Recession.

It's Friday, and a big storm is approaching the West Coast, a fitting end to a wild week. The SEC is investigating whether certain hedge funds allowed employees and favored clients to redeem their money before less favored clients. If allegations are true, then this gives new meaning to the term "front running", and should prove a great way to rebuild the reputation of an industry already viewed as having questionable ethics.

Even while dancing on the edge of the Great Abyss one should keep one's eye on the numbers. In this case, the key indicators that presage an economy at risk of totally imploding. Sure, the auto sales numbers were no worse than grim expectations and the ISM manufacturing number was actually a positive. But, oh, we have lots of nasty numbers to go around. Start with the RevPar number. That's short for revenue per available room at hotels and is a solid indicator of the health of the travel industry, as well as the state of business travel spending. The number? Down a stunning 15.3% in the month of January, year-over-year.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF), the hip clothing store that competes with The Gap, Inc. (NYSE: GPS) and J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE: JCP), is no different than any other retailer. Christmas is going to hurt... hurt bad. Make no mistake. And as far as earnings reports goes, the pattern is in: report a decline, then issue some nasty guidance.

Abercrombie reported Q3 numbers today, and according to the press release, net sales decreased 8%, and earnings per diluted share declined 44% to $0.72. As Melly Alazraki reported this morning, that $0.72 beat analyst estimates. But the market could care less. As Melly pointed out, the full-year outlook was cut. The stock sold off upon the news. In fact, as I write this, the stock is down nearly 15%. By the way, if by the time this is published the market is up and Abercrombie's shares are trading in the green (big if, granted), don't even think it's a buy. Put that out of your mind. Did you see the same-store sales? They were down 14% for the quarter. That figure is grabbing the attention of investors, I'm sure. When you see a downturn like that, well, you know things aren't going to turn around quickly.

Abercrombie's woes will be with it for a while. Management will find it difficult to strike the right balance between staffing the stores properly and increasing marketing activities. All retailers will be in the same boat. The stock hit a new 52-week low today of $18.83. My guess is that the stock will be as volatile as the market, and that it will trend in a downward direction over the next couple months. Obviously I don't think it's a buy. Broken stock and broken fundamentals aren't a great combo. Abercrombie continues to plan for new store openings in fiscal 2008; perhaps those investments will pay off down the line. For now, the retail sector is doing horribly, competition in the sector is becoming cutthroat as consumer confidence loses value, and I continue to look at only two names -- Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Target (NYSE: TGT) -- as possible long-term values. Yep, Abercrombie & Fitch isn't so sexy anymore.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

Kohl's Corp (NYSE: KSS) reported Q3 earnings on Thursday after the bell. I didn't like what I saw. I couldn't find anything in there that would make me think the stock is a buy at this time. Well, there were a couple good points, but they didn't sway me.

Net revenues were pretty much flat at $3.8 billion. The bottom line came in at $0.52 per diluted share. Last year at this time, Kohl's delivered $0.61 per diluted share in net income. That's a 15% drop, and that isn't good, even if earnings beat expectations by a penny.

So, we got a flat top line and a declining bottom line. Want some more bad news? This is probably the worst metric: same-store sales decreased well over 6% for the quarter. Plus, they declined 6% for the nine-month period. As can be seen, things are getting worse for Kohl's. Same-store sales are indeed a key measure of a retailer's strength, so even though management did well in terms of gross margin and operational cash flow (the latter took a big jump, moving up 175% due to changes in working capital relating to inventories), I can't find it within me to be even remotely bullish on this business.

Bloomberg News reports that vacancies are rising fast. It notes that the average vacancy rate at neighborhood and community malls rose to 8.2%, up from 7.3% in 2007 and the highest level since 1995. And at regional and super-regional malls, vacancies increased to 6.3%, up from 5.6 % in 2007.

Sam Chandan, chief economist of research firm, Reis Inc., told Bloomberg that the amount of retail space being abandoned, "consistent with store closures, is at its highest level in almost 28 years." What's going on? Retailers --such as Linens 'n Things, Sharper Image, Lillian Vernon, Bombay and Levitz Furniture -- have filed for bankruptcy.

Why so many bankruptcies? It could be that with housing prices down 15% and 3 million mortgages in foreclosure people can't borrow the money they formerly used to purchase the goods that these malls sell. With consumer demand dropping and vacancies on the rise, it's surprising that rents are increasing at all.

"Mall of misfortune" -- The title of the article in The National says it all.

It seemed like such a good idea: China's economy is growing at a frantic pace, and people have more disposable income than ever. Why not build the world's largest mall in the Pearl River Delta -- China's wealthiest region -- generate a ton of hype, and make millions? "Build it and they will come," right?

Wrong. The seven-million square foot South China Mall is a flop of historical significance. Imagine combining New Coke, The Ford Edsel and O-Town's second album in a blender, and then building a mall out of it. The mall opened in 2005 with space for 1,500 stores and is currently home to around 12. That's a vacancy rate of 99.2%.

In a way, it's nice to see this thing flop: it turns that you actually can lose money overestimating peoples' appetite for conspicuous consumption -- at least in China. What's caused the mall's failure? A Bloomberg headline sums up one possibility: Many Savers, Few Spenders Leave South China Mall Almost Empty.



China has the highest savings rate of any country in the world (about 30% of household income) and people are electing to invest their expanding wealth rather than buy stupid stuff.

Meanwhile, our savings rate is negative, and people are struggling to come up with the money to fill up the Hummers they use to drive to work in cubicles. Something went badly wrong in the good old US of A, and our complaints about communism aside, we might do well to look to China to find out how to fix it.

Gallery: Signs of a global recession?