Relief rally for mall stocks but sluggish 2022 start for Walmart and Target
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Mall stocks are soaring in a relief rally tied to hopes that the omicron COVID variant will not do much to dent consumer shopping demand.
Big gainers include Macy's (M
+8.0%), Dillard's (DDS
+9.8%), Nordstrom (JWN
+7.0%), Express (EXPR
+8.1%), Chico's (CHS
+3.7%), Designer Brands (DBI
+6.1%), Shoe Carnival (SCVL
+5.6%), Gap (GPS
+5.7%), Guess (GES
+4.3%), J.Jill (JILL
+6.2%) and Urban Outfitters (URBN
+4.4%).

Luxury stocks are participating in the rally, led by Signet Jewelers (SIG
+12.6%). There are also decent gains for Fossil Group (FOSL
+7.2%), Movado (MOV
+2.8%), Ralph Lauren (RL
+2.5%) and Tapestry (TPR
+2.5%) as well. Discounters Dollar General (DG
-0.8%) and Dollar Tree (DLTR
+0.1%) are laggards with some analysts pointing to less pricing power for the chains. Walmart (WMT
-1.0%) and Target (TGT
-1.1%) are also underperforming the mall chains on the day as investors turn less defensive within the retail sector.
Read a breakdown on Wells Fargo's top softline picks for 2022.