Wall Street Thinks The Worst Is Still To Come For Traditional Retail

It’s obviously a terrible time to be a brick-and-mortar retailer. But Wall Street is betting that things will get even worse for department stores and retailers. Investors are placing huge wagers that the one-two punch of Amazon and fast fashion will knock out more and more stores in the months and years to come. Not surprisingly, retail is the most hated industry in the entire stock market. That’s based on Bespoke Investment Group stats on the average percentage of shares that investors are betting against, or shorting. Unfortunately for retail employees and investors, that’s been a winning trade. Anemic sales have forced hundreds of store closures, countless retail bankruptcies and tens of thousands of layoffs. Along the way, retail stocks have gotten crushed. Consider that two-thirds of Macy’s market value has vanished over the past two years, and JCPenney is down 90% since early 2012. Sears, which also owns Kmart, has warned there’s “substantial doubt” it will survive. Read more at CNN Money.