A&F rocks chic casual stocks

FashionUnited Top 100 Index was 1203.54 Thursday, down by 5.74 points. U.S. stock futures pared early losses on Thursday after jobless claims sharply dropped, but a backdrop of mixed earnings and escalating violence in Egypt kept futures in the red.

In trading on Wednesday, US based department stores shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 1.8%. This low key performance was still affecting the apparel stocks on Thursday though. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 14 points at 11971, while Standard & Poor's 500-stock index futures shed 2 points to 1298 and Nasdaq 100 futures slid 7 points to 2313. Prior to the data, Dow futures had been down 20 points, while S&P 500 futures were off 3 and Nasdaq 100 futures shed 9.
 
Trefis Team’s price estimation for Abercrombie & Fitch is $53.34, roughly 6% above market price. They estimate that A&F Stores account for 37% of the company’s stock value compared to 29% for Hollister stores. The Internet & Catalog Orders contribute around 19%. December has been a mixed month for retailers, with some retailers like Gap and American Eagle failing to meet expectations while others like Abercrombie & Fitch doing well. Overall, comparable store sales for retailers increased by only 3.1%, slightly lower than Wall Street’s forecast. However, Abercrombie & Fitch did surprisingly well, with net sales for the month increasing by 26% as compared to the same period last year. This was supported by growth from both direct and store channels. Its net direct-to-consumer sales (our Internet & Catalog Orders division) increased by 59% and net comparable store sales increased 13%.
 
Other stocks with a significant performance within the Index were ASOS, NEXT and M&S, all at the head of the top winners, Fast Retailing, dying of success during its first day selling their last collaboration with Jil Sanders and Burberry, losing fuel after a boosted first half of the week.