Retail Issues Follow Techs Down; Talbots, Gap, Federated Take Hits
NEW YORK -- Retail issues faltered, joining high technology as a source of pressure on fading market averages.</br></br>Shares of Talbots dropped $6.95 to $46.80 each, while AnnTaylor Stores fell 1.31 to 26.39 a share and Abercrombie & Fitch declined 1.29 to 29.86 a share. The losses came after a rival apparel retailer, Gap, reported disappointing January same-store sales figures, and warned that it didn't expect to live up to fourth-quarter profit forecasts. Gap shares retreated 2.95 to 26.61 each.</br></br>Other retailers' share prices also contracted, including some that acquitted themselves relatively well with January sales totals, despite contending with aftereffects of the sluggish end-of-year sales season. Wal-Mart Stores, for example, fell 2.36 to 52.30 a share and Federated Department Stores dropped 2.96 to 42.98 a share.</br></br>The retailers' declines also exacerbated the lingering pressure from the tech sector, which continued to deal with fallout from Cisco Systems' downbeat quarterly profit statement earlier this week, particularly as it related to inventory problems for communications hardware.</br></br>Cisco surrendered 1.06 to 30 a share at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading, while also inflicting some collateral damage on the market, as chip maker Applied Micro Circuits (Nasdaq) declined 3.06 to 46.75 a share and electronics maker Jabil Circuit gave up 1.21 to 30.15.