General Merchandise Stores

This morning Target Corp.(NYSE: TGT) is trading lower by 0.85 cents to $51.42 a share. The retail giant is declining despite the overall market rally this morning. Short term traders can watch intra-day support around the $51.13 level. This is a very likely short term bounce area. Should that...

8am comps today were pretty disappointing for the retail sector. Dillard's (NYSE: DDS) failed to meet comps estimates of +2.4%, coming in at -1%. Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) failed to beat comps estimates of +3.6%, coming in at +3.1%. Target (NYSE: TGT) failed to beat comps estimates of +2.0%, coming in...

  Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) today reported that its net retail sales for the four weeks ended February 26, 2011 were $4,750 million, an increase of 2.4 percent from $4,637 million for the four weeks ended February 27, 2010. On this same basis, February comparable-store sales increased...

  Fred's Inc. (NASDAQ: FRED) today reported sales for the four-week fiscal month of February, the first month of fiscal 2011, which ended February 26, 2011. Fred's total sales for the month increased 2% to $153.6 million from $150.6 million in February 2010....

Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE: FDO) today announced that its Board of Directors, by a unanimous vote of those present, determined that continued implementation of the Company's strategic plan remains the best way to deliver value to all Family Dollar shareholders.     The...

US stock futures are higher this morning, as investors are awaiting data on jobless claims and the non-manufacturing sector.Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 75 points to 12,121.00 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index climbed 9.20 points to 1,315.00. Nasdaq 100 futures rose...

Marvell Technology Group Ltd (NASDAQ: MRVL) is projected to report its Q4 earnings at $0.42 per share on revenue of $925.64 million. H.J. Heinz Co (NYSE: HNZ) is estimated to post its FQ3 earnings at $0.81 per share on revenue of $2.71 billion. Kroger Company (NYSE: KR) is expected to report its...

Some of the stocks that may grab investor focus today are: Wall Street expects Kroger Company (NYSE: KR) to report its Q4 EPS at $0.44 on revenue of $19.37 billion. KR shares gained 0.75% to $22.69 in after-hours trading. Analysts are expecting H.J. Heinz Co (NYSE: HNZ) to have earned $0.81 per...

Stephen Weiss said on CNBC's Fast Money that he is a buyer of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ). He likes its big yield, and he thinks that Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) is a defensive stock that will benefit from the new iPad 2 and new iPhone. Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) gained 0.89%...

Fred's, Inc. (NASDAQ: FRED) today announced that its Board of Directors has increased the Company's quarterly cash dividend 25% to $0.05 per share from the previous rate of $0.04 per share. The dividend is payable on March 15, 2011, to shareholders of record as of March 10, 2011.

In a report published by J.P. Morgan, Family Dollar Stores (NYSE: FDO) saw its rating move to Neutral. J.P. Morgan reported that it is downgrading shares of Family Dollar to Neutral from Overweight with the stock ahead of its December 2011 price target of $49. “Following the recent spike in the...

The Fed's Beige book is being released at 2:00 p.m. today, and the Beige Book will give us anecdotal evidence from the twelve Federal Reserve districts on current economic conditions. This is generally a market moving report, and traders and investors will be interested to see what the different...

According to Benchmark, Big Lots (NYSE: BIG) expects a slight upside in its 4Q10 Earnings. Benchmark reported that Big Lots is expected to report Q4 earnings on Thursday, March 3, before the market open. “We believe there could be slight upside potential to ours and the consensus estimate of $1.38...

JP Morgan has downgraded Family Dollar Stores (NYSE: FDO) from Overweight to Neutral and maintains its $49 price target.

CNBC Fast Money's Tim Seymour said on the show that investors should take a short position in agriculture stocks. Guy Adami thinks that silver is going higher. If you agree with him, you can buy ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) tomorrow. ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (AGQ) gained 4.58%...