July Comps Released: These Retail Stocks Will Be In Focus On Thursday

After making four-year highs yesterday, stocks
closed flat on Wednesdray.

Adidas-Salomon is buying Reebok
(
RBK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) in an $59 all-cash
deal. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2006.
Competition with Nike in the World Cup arena. Adidas has put together a 100-man
team to plan for the event, and will unveil a tournament ball and roll out
further merchandising later this year.

Time Warner
(
TWX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) missed estimates and swung to a Q2 loss light on
revenues The company announced a $5 billion stock buyback program. The company
had set aside $3 billion to settle AOL accounting lawsuits.

Cigna
(
CI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.43; earnings rose 43% from a year ago.

A seat on the NYSE sold for $3.0 million, new a record. The last record was
2.65 million. In January, a seat sold for  under $1 million.

July same store sales were released after the close. Here are some selected
results:

Starbucks
(
SBUX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)            
+7%

Zumiez
(
ZUMZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)                
+12.7%

Hot Topic
(
HOTT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)              
-5%

American Eagle
(
AEOS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)    +17.1%

Aeropostale
(
ARO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)            
-4.2%

 

Strong sectors were: Gold
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +4.02%  
Utilities
(
$UTY.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.31% 

Weak sectors were:  Airlines

(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -1.45%