NEW YORK (Reuters) - If there was any question of how much an early Easter would hurt sales at already-struggling U.S. retailers, J.C. Penney Co Inc (JCP.N) gave a resounding answer last month with a quarterly profit warning.The mid-tier department store operator, which counts half of American families as its customers, said earnings for its first quarter, which began on February 3, could miss initial forecasts by as much as 38 percent after sales through Easter came in well below expectations.
Investors are now bracing for more profit warnings on Thursday, when major U.S. retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N), Gap Inc (GPS.N) and Kohl's Corp (KSS.N), report their final sales figures for March.
"We think it's possible that Nordstrom (JWN.N), Macy's (M.N) and Kohl's (KSS.N) could confess and warn of softer first-quarter earnings per share on Thursday," JPMorgan analyst Charles Grom wrote in a research note.A Macy's spokesman declined to comment. The company no longer reports monthly sales and said in February that it would stop providing quarterly earnings forecasts.
Officials at Kohl's and Nordstrom were not immediately available for comment.
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It is already apparent that stores have not been meeting a desired number of sales and J.C. Penny, among several others, claims that the predicted quarterly sales have already been off by 38 percent. Last year, J.C. Penney said March sales at department stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, rose 10.6 percent on strong demand for clothing. Specialists claim that shoppers have spent less due to "high gasoline prices, soaring food costs, dropping home values, a credit market crunch and a weakening job market". Some say that the declining sales record is being caused by the colder weather and low demand for warmer weather clothing and if so, then the sales record for March 2008 could be the worst in 23 years.
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