Piper Jaffray Reports Increased Home Improvement Retail Sales

According to a Piper Jaffray research report published yesterday, October home improvement sales were up 12.2% y/y and Q3 was up 9% y/y. Piper Jaffray writes, "The Oct sales results are an acceleration from Sept (revised +8.2% y/y) and Aug (revised +6.7%). Q3 represented the fifth consecutive quarterly improvement in y/y sales results although we note that Oct '09 retail sales were revised downward 4.8% which appears to have significantly aided the y/y Oct growth %." Related stocks: Home Depot HD is estimating 3Q EPS of $0.47 vs. the consensus of ~$0.48. Lowe's LOW is estimating 4Q EPS of $0.18 vs. the consensus of ~$0.18.