"TGT has lagged the other names in the group: Kohl's (KSS) is up 28%, Macy's (M) is up 21%, JC Penney (JCP) has climbed 48% and Nordstrom (JWN) has rallied an astounding 56%." "Retail Is a Microcosm of the Broad Market," 6-15-09

With that in mind, Cramer said he wasn't going to formulate a view on retail based on JC Penney's (JCP) earnings report today. "I look at something like what JC Penney says, and I can't make that determination," he said. ("Stop Trading!," 5-15-09)

"Of course, that means it was all the expectations game. The other guys had taken down expectations to the point that their horrid numbers looked good, especially Nordstrom's (JWN), but Kohl's (KSS) and J.C. Penney (JCP) weren't so hot either. Abercrombie's (ANF) were terrible, the worst I have seen, but you could never lower them enough!" ("Retail = No Sale," 4-9-09)

Cramer: 50% Retracement: Jim Cramer sees a 50% pullback, but still thinks that the overbought levels were a positive long term sign. Real Money TV viewers get Cramer's videos first and commercial free!
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JC Penney (JCP), Kohl's (KSS) and Sears (SHLD) are making people feel that Wal-Mart (WMT) is aberrant, so does the action in Costco Wholesale (COST). You have to like that not all retail is down. This move surprises me.

But you find your favorite tech that hasn't moved much -- we like Qualcomm (QCOM) and Cisco (CSCO) for Action Alerts PLUS, plus Research In Motion's (RIMM) right because of new products -- and you buy a mortgage play -- Wells Fargo (WFC)? -- and you can buy a down-and-dirty retailer that you have faith in, but hold your nose. I can get with Best Buy (BBY), and I like the yield support of JC Penney (JCP). You can buy deep-in-the-money calls for MasterCard (MA) -- remember, it did report a fantastic number.

Wal-Mart (WMT) is such a winner over Target (TGT), JC Penney (JCP) Kohl's (KSS), Macy's (M) and all the other major discounters that it is hard for me to believe it isn't game, set, match already -- except for Costco (COST). I believe Mal-Mart is a big stock for next year precisely because it is the winner. (Odd, but Macy's is back to where it was before it got its credit agreement. That's a little too negative for me.)

We are seeing the effects of lower gasoline everywhere today, including all of the retailers that everyone told us would have a horrible holiday season. Target (TGT), J.C. Penney (JCP) and the other trade ups from Wal-Mart (WMT) are just tearing. What happened to those sellers there? What happened to all of the people who were worried about bad debts and stretched consumers? Remarkable how little memory we have of a week ago. Did people get short these off of the unemployment number and then just not bother to cover?

At a time when 401k plans, in which employees assume the investment risk, dominate the corporate retirement-planning landscape, pension plans -- and their problems -- remain the province largely of old-line industrial companies that established defined-benefit plans for future retirees. There are exceptions: Companies such as Penney favored defined benefit plans to attract the best employees, closing them to new workers only in 2007.

PE: 5 PEG: 0.71

consumers are dwindling

Recession.

I bought this stock recently to see if it would catch some of this stimulation money with the RL team up catalyst. The dude abides on this one.

when retail moves up this one is ready to do well

A hot tamale that Cramer was very high on but the stock has languished since November.