Enduring Retail Narratives

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Retail (At Least They're Consistent). Chico's FAS Inc. ($CHS) reported numbers and despite a profit increase, its other numbers looked a bit shaky - consistent with the rest of the apparel industry. Net sales, revenue and same store sales were all down with guidance indicating additional same store sales declines. In the face of challenging millennial spending habits, decreased tourism and President Trump, Tiffany & Co. ($TIF) reported a 3% same store sales decline which sent the stock tumbling nearly 6%. Some data on decreased tourism from FourSquare here. Sears Holding Corp. ($SHLD) revenue fell 20% and same store sales fell nearly 12% - and yet the stock initially popped showing the disconnect between reality and markets these days. Serious, WTF.

International Tourism Trending Down Bigly

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As if the retail situation isn't bad enough, Foursquare is reporting that leisure tourism is down a normalized 11% for Q4 '16 and Q1 '17. A proper inference to be made is that this could very well extrapolate out negatively for high tourist locales like New York City which, in many respects, depend on tourist spending for revenues. It will be interesting to see what the New York City Comptroller reports in coming periods. #MAGA