Retail Distress Deepens In U.S. On Drag From Debt, Web Spending

The U.S. retail apocalypse is far from over. While the collapse of storied merchants like Sears Holdings Corp. and Toys “R” Us Inc. has left stores shuttered across America, retailers still make up about a fifth of the universe of distressed borrowers. Consumer confidence is slumping. On Friday, the head of the biggest mall owner in the U.S. cautioned that more retailer bankruptcies are coming. Economists are increasingly worried about a recession in the next year. And even relatively strong store chains like Macy’s Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. have warned that their results over the holiday shopping season were lackluster. Read more at Bloomberg.