J.C. Penney Fails To Benefit From Retail Spending Surge As Prospects Dim

This is one of the healthiest consumer environments in memory but you could hardly tell by looking at J.C. Penney’s latest batch of quarterly earnings. The struggling department store, dealing with the sudden defection of its CEO during the second quarter, boasted in its press release’s headline on Thursday that it had “delivered positive sales comps for the quarter.” But sales at stores open at least a year and online sales rose a combined 0.3% during the second quarter, hardly anything to crow about amid a surge in consumer spending. Walmart on Thursday reported its quarterly U.S. comparable sales had risen 4.5%, its best performance in a decade. J.C. Penney shares fell 17% in premarket trading and were set to hit an all-time low. The sense of hopelessness that has surrounded Penney’s prospects in recent months was only worsened as Penney slashed its outlook for fiscal 2018, now forecasting same-store sales to be roughly flat and for adjusted loss per share to come on at $1 to 80 cents. What would Penney’s results be in a tough consumer environment? Read more at Fortune.