The consumer discretionary group is in-line with the broader market in early trade. The retail group is also in the red with the Retail HOLDRS Trust (RTH) -0.4% and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) -1%. Trading lower following earnings/guidance: BODY -38.6%, DSW -12.1%..
Other notable mentions: LF flat (announced that Greg Ahearn has joined the company as chief marketing officer, effective immediately)... Leaders: PETM 0.7% (increased its quarterly dividend by 18% from $0.14/share to $0.165/share), BKS 2.6% (seeing volatility on speculation related to upcoming MSFT announcement), Laggards: SCVL -2.6% (initiates quarterly cash dividend of $0.05 per share), BONT -1.6% (provides results to Date of Exchange Offer and Consent Solicitation; total of ~ $329.4 mln principal amount of Old Notes had been tendered in the exchange offer), HST -1.1% (Host Hotels announces 17% increase in quarterly dividend on common stock to $0.07/share).
Analyst related: Upgrades: GRPN 5.8% (upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley), IGT -0.4% (upgraded to Buy from Outperform at Credit Agricole), TWX 0.2% (Hearing upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Davenport)... Misc: YONG -0.3% (initiated with a Hold at Brean Murray), EBAY 0.8% (initiated with an Outperform at Keefe Bruyette), BEAM flat (initiated with an Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley).






