*If you’ve ventured out to your local mall, big-box discounter or home improvement store, you may have seen the twinkling lights, decorations and even heard a carol or two in the air. The critical fourth-quarter holiday-shopping period is upon us. *
And that’s 100% by design.
As we’ve seen, the retail sector was already a bloodbath before COVID-19 and the economic slowdown. But with the pandemic and plenty of economic uncertainty still persisting, retailers are finding themselves between a rock and a hard place. With only a limited amount of consumer funds available for spending, the sector needs all the sales they can gather.
For investors, this poses an interesting problem. Many retail stocks have moved higher on the idea that the holiday season and end of the pandemic could bring better fortunes, but that is far from certain. For investors, this may be a perfect case of buying “best of breed” and ignoring much of the retail sector.
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