Retailers climb after data; Ulta Salon up on forecast

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Retailers were among the better performers on Friday, edging higher after data showed U.S. retail sales rose broadly in August and consumer sentiment hit a 14-month high in September.

The Morgan Stanley retail index jumped 0.9 percent; the S&P 500 retail index was up 0.1 percent.

Leading the percentage gainers on the Morgan Stanley index was Ulta Salon Cosmetics and Fragrance, which jumped 20.2 percent after raising its full-year same-store sales growth forecast late Thursday.

Among other top retail gainers, Best Buy was up 2 percent, Staples was up 1.8 percent and Lululemon Athletica was up 2.9 percent. Several brokerages raised their price targets on Lululemon, which reported a better-than-expected profit on Thursday.

 

Retailers as a group have had a tough year, with early sales hurt by a severe U.S. winter. The Morgan Stanley index is up just 0.9 percent for the year so far, while the S&P retail index is up 0.3 percent.

The group continues to warn about future earnings as well, with 16 negative third-quarter outlooks so far from companies in the S&P 500 consumer discretionary group, compared with just 4 positive ones, Thomson Reuters data showed.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)