Chief executive of Kmart (NASDAQ:SHLD), Lou D’Ambrosio said, “Given our performance and the difficult economic environment, especially for big-ticket items, we intend to implement a series of actions to reduce on-going expenses, adjust our asset base, and accelerate the transformation of our business model.”
Eight weeks prior to Christmas Day, trade at Kmart fell by 4.4% and by 6% at Sears. Howard Davidowitz, a retail analyst stated that this was not surprising at all, “Sears took their cash flow and used it to buy back shares instead of enhancing their offer to the customer. This has proven to be a disastrous investment that was made even though the company has been losing market share every single quarter for the past four years.”
Gary Balter, an analyst at Credit Suisse, says that the findings were due to “deepening problems at this struggling chain and renewed worries about Sears survivability.”
For news on economy, the demand for architectural firms as JHP Architecture, expects to sustain employment vacancies at least through the first quarter. The firm works on a 300-unit apartment complex in Dallas.
Director of urban design and planning at JHP, Brian Keith said, “We’re seeing overall work come back and there’s a backlog of contracts to go through. There’s strong interest in multi-family units and plenty of pent-up demand.”
With U.S. job loss at a condescending 8.6%, home foreclosures increasing and land costs under pressure, many Americans have surrendered the vision of owning, opting instead to rent, a shift that is remaking the face of the U.S. housing industry.
According to the Morgan Stanley report, “Rents are rising, vacancies are falling, household formations are growing and rental supply is limited. We believe the demand for rental properties will continue to grow.”
