Wall Street Plummets Amid Retail Worries

Stocks: You mean they go down, too?!?

Stocks, and especially marquee department store names, slid on Thursday in the United States, spurred by dismal results at retailers — including Macy’s and Kohl’s — and signaling worries over the health of spending at U.S. brick-and-mortar locations. Poor consumer spending, said Reuters, may not auger well for the economy on a grander scale.

As has been widely reported, Macy’s stock got slammed by 17 percent, and Kohl’s dropped by more than 7 percent. Peers such as J.C. Penney were off similarly by 7 percent. Said Phil Blancato, CEO Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, “It’s a canary in the coal mine moment.”

A further tell came from the retail sector yet again after hours when Nordstrom joined the ranks of retail firms to report dismal news: The firm said that quarterly same-store sales fell even as earnings were above the Street. The same-store results showed a drop of 80 basis points, when estimates had called for roughly a 10 point drop.

The broader markets were down in sympathy, as the S&P lost 22 basis points to end the session below 2,400.

Among the most visible plummeters: Shares of Snap Inc., which owns the Snapchat app, were off more than 20 percent, as user growth and revenue growth were both below Street estimates.