U.S. stocks are mixed this morning as September producer prices fell 0.5 percent, more than the 0.3 percent that Briefing.com had estimated. Prices for women’s apparel ticked up 0.7 percent from August to September, while men’s remained flat.
September retail sales rose 0.1 percent over August, lighter than the estimated 0.2 percent. The gains in September were based on autos and, removing that element from the report, retail sales dropped 0.3 percent. September was supposed to benefit from the later Labor Day holiday, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Clothing sales increased 0.9 percent from August and a healthy 4.7 percent over last year’s September sales.
Looking at the overall market, the S&P 500 is flat at 2,003, the Dow Jones Industrial average is down 21 points to 17,059 and the Nasdaq is up 34 points to 4,800. The European markets were down slightly. The Asian markets closed lower based on weak inflation data in China.
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Wal-Mart’s chief executive officer Doug McMillon was on CNBC this morning and downplayed business as he described back to school as OK and said the holidays would be “fine.” Wal-Mart is hosting its annual investor meeting today and is hoping to change minds about its performance. Wal-Mart is the worst performing stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 22 percent of its value over the year, but it is up 10 cents this morning to $66.83.
Shopify said it was partnering with Uber to offer Uber Rush delivery services to its merchants. The Uber same-day delivery service will begin with a select number of Shopify merchants in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. The merchant just packs the order and then requests an Uber pickup. Shopify has 175,000 merchants and has a total gross merchandise volume of over $10 billion. Amazon closed its Web store for merchants and began using Shopify last month. Shopify went public earlier this year and is up 94 percent year-to-date and is up another 1.6 percent to $33.65 this morning.
Martha Stewart told the Associated Press that she should have bought Kmart when she had the chance. The original lifestyle guru said she regrets not doing the deal before the chain went downhill. Stewart originally sold most of her wares at the chain before separating in 2009. She now sells her goods through Macy’s, Home Depot and Michael’s crafts stores. She is also in the process of selling her company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to Sequential Brands for $353 million. The deal is expected to close before the end of the year — and that’s a good thing.