Check out things looking a little better in retail?
 
Ann Taylor raised its forecast for first-quarter earnings, citing improved results at its LOFT chain and stronger expense control.
 
This comes a few days after many retailers posted better-than-expected sales in April and could mark the start of a trend.
 
Goldman Sachs said the better April could lead to modest first-quarter earnings beats.
 
“This will be particularly evident across the department store sub sector as most management teams reduced their earnings outlook post March results, which fell short of plan. Kohl’s has already kick started this trend stating EPS would ‘exceed’ previous 40 cents to 42 cents guidance. We suspect J.C. Penney will follow suit, beating management’s 50-cent forecast … given high end of plan sales,” Goldman said in a research note.
 
Retail earnings get going in earnest this week with reports from Wal-Mart, Macy’s, J.C. Penney and others.
 
Also in the basket:
 
April retail sales barely budged: SpendingPulse
  
Luxury brands Prada, Ferragamo risk competing IPOs

(Photo: Reuters)

Check out the virtual coupon clippers.
 
Consumers are turning more to the internet for ways to save money, seeking out websites that let you clip coupons.
 
According to Hitwise research director Heather Dougherty, “the market share of visits for a custom category of 11 printable coupon websites is up 85 percent for the week ending May 3, 2008 as compared to the same week last year.”
 
People are spending more time on those sites, she said, spending an average of 6 minutes and 14 seconds, up from 4 minutes and 29 seconds a year ago.
 
Meanwhile, searches for the generic term ‘coupons’ are up 45 percent for the week ending May 3, 2008, compared to the same timeframe in 2007. (Find Dougherty’s full post here).
 
Among the top coupons being searched for are ones from Dell. Apparently so you can get a new computer. And search for more coupons.
 
Also in the basket:
 
Hugo Boss CEO to be replaced “shortly” - Valentino
 
Quirky restaurant ads yield to tried and true (N.Y. Times)

Check out the warning signs sprinkled amid the April sales results.
 
A lot of retailers reported better-than-expected sales in April as improved weather in parts of the country helped convince consumers to buy new clothes.
 
In fact, 61 percent of retailers that have reported so far beat estimates, according to Thomson Reuters research. Discounters, department stores and teen apparel retailers were among those posting the biggest upside surprises.
 
But amid those results were some comments that could be cause for worry going forward.

For example, J.C. Penney reported a less-than-expected decline in April same-store sales, but said it sees a steeper drop in May. It also said those rebate checks consumers are getting will provide, at best, only a modest benefit for sales and that any boost will be short-lived.
 
Wal-Mart had a better-than-expected same-store sales increase in April, but  gave a tepid outlook for May. The discount retailer said consumers are trying to stretch their dollars by purchasing cheaper types of meats or trading down to pasta.
 
Adding to worries, Wal-Mart said the “paycheck cycle” is getting more obvious, meaning it is seeing a drop in sales at the end of the month, just before consumers get paid.
 
Elsewhere, Target reported weakness in areas hard hit by the mortgage meltdown, including Florida, Arizona and Nevada.
 
Gap same-store sales actually fell more than expected in April and the company said the economic environment remains “volatile.”
 
The market seems to have picked up on the negativity, as the Standard & Poor’s retail index is down almost 2 percent.
 
Also in the basket:
 
Best Buy enters Europe with Carphone retail deal
 
Search said to be on for new Kellwood CEO (WWD)
 
Sally Beauty profit tops view; shares jump 
 

Granada Nation has spoken: Barack Obama is no car guy.

No stranger to criticism from the U.S. auto industry, The Illinois senator and presidential candidate made it personal this week when he singled out his candidate for Detroit’s “worst car” ever: the 1970s-era Ford Granada.

The cutting comment came in an interview with an Indiana radio station, was picked up by the Detroit News, seized on as a talking point for Detroit radio and was last seen rattling around Internet chatrooms by Thursday.

Obama said he had learned to drive on his grandfather’s Ford Granada, a boxy, big-engined sedan that Ford once tried to market as a kind of Everyman’s Mercedes-Benz.

The Illinois Senator did not remember it so fondly.

“It may be the worst car that Detroit ever built. This thing was a tin can. It was during the ’70s when oil had just gone up so they were trying to compete with the Japanese. They wanted to keep the cars big, so they made them out of tin foil,” he was quoted as saying. “It would rattle and shake. You basically couldn’t go over 80 (miles per hour) without the thing getting out of control.”

Fans of the Granada, which made a cameo in last year’s Academy Award-winning drama “No Country for Old Men,” rushed to the defense of a car killed with little fanfare 25 years ago.

“I’m a Barack voter, but I disagree with him on the Granada,” said Jesse Sweigart, a 32-year-old computer engineer in Columbia, Pennsylvania.

Sweigart said his 31-year-old Ford Granada, bought on a whim for $400 over a year ago, runs like a dream and gets better gas mileage than his newer Dodge truck. “They really put things together back then,” he said.

Tom Peterson, another enthusiast, said Obama was wrong to suggest the big Ford featured flimsy “tin foil” since it was a heavyweight in its late 1970s heyday. “If Obama actually said this, it sounds like (a) politician gum-flapping based on no knowledge,” he said.

“Here comes Granadagate,” wrote one Web poster. “We should invite Barack to drive a couple of our rides. Time heals all wounds.”

Sweigart offered to let Obama take a spin down memory land if the presidential campaign takes him back to Pennslyvania.

“I think if he got behind the wheel it would all come back,” he said. “I’d be happy to give him a ride to the next state.”

In the meantime, Obama may have some damage control ahead with voters in Michigan’s still auto-heavy economy. The Michigan Democratic delegation remains in play ahead of the party convention in August, and polls show Republican John McCain as a strong challenger to Obama in a prospective match-up in the 8th most populous state.

– By Kevin Krolicki in Detroit

Can the running shoes we buy really help protect the environment?

According to a new list by nonprofit group Climate Counts, Nike ranked first among the world's most climate-friendly companies.

In its second annual report, Climate Counts ranked companies based on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support of global warming legislation, public disclosure of their efforts to address climate change, and whether they measure their impacts on the environment.

Nike ranked well in all those areas, garnering a score of 82 out of a possible 100 points. Stonyfield Farm, IBM, Unilever, Canon, General Electric, Toshiba, Procter & Gamble, Hewlett-Packard and Sony rounded out the list's top 10.

Google, Anheuser-Busch and Levi Strauss logged the largest score improvements, each jumping over 20 points since last year. The average company score improved 22 percent over last year, when Canon was the top scorer.

Who were the losers? In a word, restaurants.

Olive Garden and Red Lobster owner Darden Restaurants, Wendy's and Burger King each scored zero out of 100 points, while KFC and Taco Bell owner Yum Brands registered a single point for encouraging reduction of energy consumption.

Jones Apparel Group was the only other company to receive a score of zero.

For Climate Counts' full list, click here.

Dr Pepper Snapple Group debuted on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday after being spun off from British candy and gum company Cadbury. 
 
The company is putting together a five-year plan to improve its business in Latin America, but its main focus will be on selling more drinks in the United States, Chief Executive Larry Young told Reuters.
 
Unfortunately, that might not be what Wall Street wants to hear.
 
Dr Pepper’s exposure to the sluggish U.S. soft drinks business could hurt growth.
 
 ”The firm has a mixed stable of brands, lacks the scale and product portfolio breadth enjoyed by larger rivals Coke and Pepsi, and relies almost exclusively on the mature and highly competitive U.S. market,” Morningstar analyst Mitchell Corwin said.
 
Still, Young says the company’s brands will take care of themselves.
 
“We have great brands, great people and are focused on delivering great results,” he said. “We’ll let the market take care of the price.”

(Reuters photo)

Tax rebate checks are in the mail and some of the rebate cash has already made its way to consumers’ wallets. But will this cash infusion give the economy (and struggling retailers) a boost?

According to interviews Reuters conducted with consumers across the United States over the past week, the answer seems to be that most of the extra money will be heading toward the basics — like food, fuel and credit card payments — with just a little left over for splurges.

Here are some comments we rounded up:

• “I will almost certainly save it,” Courtney Hancock said outside a shopping center in the Buckhead section of Atlanta. “At this point there isn’t anything that I’ve been waiting to buy.” Her expected $600 rebate check will likely be used for a bigger purchase later. 
• Lisa Hasson, 39, free-lance pianist and mother of twin, 2-year-old boys in Cincinnati. “I’m probably just putting it in a savings account — holding onto it for the summer. Lean living for lean times.” 
• Ava Lee, 34, has been out of work in Los Angeles since December and says she’ll use her rebate check to pay for “necessary expenses” like food and gas. ”I’d use mine for everyday spending. I would not go out and say, ‘Ooh! I have extra money’,” said Lee, who has turned off her heat and air conditioning to keep expenses down. 
• Sarah Ortiz of Houston said she decided early on to use the tax rebate to pay debt. “I’m trying to get down to one credit card. They say we’re in a credit-crunch,” she said. 
• Daniel Pillow of Houston said he planned to use his rebate to pay his American Express bill, but admitted he’d already used the card to buy some extra clothes in anticipation of getting a check. “I may have spent a little bit, knowing that I was going to get a check,” said Pillow, an employee of the Houston Public Library system. 
• Morgan Lawson, 58, works at the Time-Life Building in New York supervising newspaper deliveries. ”The likelihood of saving it is slim,” he said, adding that prices seem to be rising across the board. He thinks he will have to spend it on necessities, like food and higher energy prices and clothes for his children. ”It sure doesn’t hurt,” to get the extra cash, he said, “But, it’s not a huge boost.” 
• Sergio Rivas, a computer network administrator from Hialeah, Florida, said he would put his rebate toward a deposit on a new apartment.  He said he’s looking for “something a little bit bigger, hopefully with some kind of patio.” 
• Paula Goehe, 61, retired administrative assistant in Indiana: “I’m sorry to tell you I’m not going to spend it. We need the money for retirement. We’ve been retired four or five years and we spent a lot to put our children through college, so we’ll be saving it — even though there is no interest at all.” 
• Dana Bulan, a teacher who lives in Chicago, said she will use her $300 rebate check to pay for her regular tennis lessons and won’t bother trying to save it. ”It’s such a small amount of money, it’s not worth, I think, trying to put it someplace else,” Bulan said.
• John Barker, 57, who installs swimming pools for the “super-rich” in the St. Louis area, said that although his business had not been affected by slowing economic growth, spiraling costs meant he had few plans for his rebate check. ”I’ll put it into my checking account and no doubt it will go for gas or food,” he said in the parking lot of a branch of Bank of America on the outskirts of St Louis. “Looking at the price of oil, I think I’ll need it to fill up my truck.” 

(Click here to read full story) 

(Photo: Reuters)

Check out a little retail sunshine.
 
The weather finally got a little better in April, which helped retailer’s sales even as the economy stayed week, according to Planalytics.
 
“While April 2008, on a national level, may have been an ‘average’ month in terms of temperature — the weather helped unleash pent up demand, improving sales in the Northeast, Midwest and the Ohio Valley,” the consulting firm said.
 
The company, which provides weather information for businesses, said home centers, restaurants and softline retailers all showed positive year-on-year gains. 
 
It called out Bon-Ton, Dress Barn, Family Dollar and Lowe’s as having the strongest sales gains.
 
“While the economy remains sluggish, the weather has certainly done its part this month to improve business’ fortunes,” said Scott Bernhardt, Planalytics Chief Operating Officer.
 
Also in the basket:
 
Dr Pepper Snapple to focus on brands, U.S.
 
Unilever looks for Bertolli sale deal: sources 
 

(Photo: Reuters)

Late Monday, Target said it would sell a 47 percent interest in its credit card business to JPMorgan Chase for an initial investment of $3.6 billion.

The news came almost 8 months after the discount retailer, under pressure from activist investor Bill Ackman, said it was exploring options for its credit card business — a move it had long resisted.

The final deal was a complicated one that Uta Werner, an retail analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co, described in the following way: A “note sold to JPM, backed by a 47 percent undivided interest in Target’s receivables, in exchange for cash proceeds of approximately $3.6 billion and subject to a profit and risk sharing agreement.”

While the deal may have left some on Wall Street scratching their heads, wondering if the deal made sense, CFO Doug Scovanner could not say enough good things about the deal on a conference call on Tuesday.

“We expect to get hundreds of millions of dollars from profit from this venture unless we really screw it up,” he said. “Personally, I think this is what Dire Straits had in mind in the 1980s anthem, ‘Money for Nothing.’ I think this is wonderful.” 

And he balked at the notion of terminating the deal with JPMorgan if Target finds another partner interested in its full credit card portfolio. 

“We just announced that we’re intending to get married in a few weeks and you’re asking me what happens if I want to get divorced,” he said. “I’d far rather live for the moment with the happy ideas of what’s going to happen on this honeymoon than worry about how to unwind this deal.”

Check out women cutting back on some beauty needs due to the economic slowdown.

Cosmetics maker Estee Lauder Cos Inc blamed a weak retail environment for its lower quarterly profit on Tuesday due to weakness in its fragrance and hair-care businesses.

Those results come on the heels of Elizabeth Arden Inc’s surprising quarterly loss, which the fragrance maker blamed on lower sales of its cosmetics. Arden, known for its Red Door fragrance and spas, also lowered its full-year outlook due to tougher-than-expected sales trends in North America.

But unlike Arden, Estee Lauder believes it can withstand weakening consumer spending in the U.S. The New York-based company raised the bottom end of its full-year forecast range.

Also in the basket:

Molson Coors profit rises

Yum Brands ups dividend

 Burger King says stockholders to offer shares