Retail made a small comeback late this week as many of the names in the space saw a few days of relief bounces. The retail sector (NYSE: XRT) as a whole has been absolutely blasted over the past few months. Ever since reports started coming in about weak holiday sales and light store traffic retail stocks have suffered.
Well that all changed late this week (at least a little bit) as retail saw a small bounce. The XRT which is one of the more popular ETF's for the sector saw a bounce off lows of around 3%. It should be noted that the XRT is lower by almost 10% since hitting a high early December.
The pause in the decline started when reports came out that Macy's (NYSE: M) had an interested buyer. The stock shot up on the news and as the others bounced in sympathy it helped stop the sectors overall decline...For now.
Its not so much that earnings and the holidays have been playing a factor. While those metrics haven't been the best, investors have been focused on guidance going forward. Many of the retail names have suffered even further declines due to the gloomy outlook that many "brick and mortar" stores have.
On the other end of the spectrum you have Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) which has added almost another 2% for the week. Amazon has been crushing everyone in the retail space and shows no signs of stopping. Compared to this point last year Amazon is up over 60%.
For now the retailers get a much needed bounce but technical traders will be watching closely for signs of weakness to determine if this is a bounce that will start a new trend or is it just a small bounce in an overall downtrend.