A Fool’s Hope For Retail Resurgence

At least one Wall Street firm is betting brick-and-mortar retailers make a comeback this year. Wishful thinking. In a recent report entitled, “Getting Back to the Business of Investing,” Piper Jaffray analysts strike an odd, wistful tone urging investors to start trading retail stocks again: “We’ve considered hanging up our cleats and riding off into the sunset in what is our 20th year on the sell-side, but we think we see something being overlooked by the investment community which could provide a reason to consider investing in our coverage once again.” In other words, even though the string of retail bankruptcies continues (the latest being Sports Authority on Wednesday) and you think the retail industry is slowly crawling to its doom, the death march is overblown. Read more at Bloomberg.