Retail shares sank at the open Friday, with the Retail SPDR down 1.6% and most major components under heavy pressure.
Gap led the declines on a weak same-store sales report that led at least one analyst to downgrade the stock.
| Ticker | %Chg |
| GPS | -4.58% |
| ARO | -3.88% |
| OUTR | -3.37% |
| ZUMZ | -3.33% |
| JCP | -3.17% |
| BWS | -3.15% |
| ULTA | -3.03% |
| EXPR | -3.02% |
| SSI | -2.93% |
| TRIP | -2.92% |
| AEO | -2.90% |
| SHLD | -2.67% |
| RCII | -2.54% |
| TCS | -2.51% |
| BKS | -2.42% |
| PBY | -2.40% |
| CONN | -2.33% |
| TFM | -2.29% |
| FRAN | -2.25% |
| LB | -2.24% |
| VSI | -2.16% |
| AWAY | -2.05% |
| BBY | -2.02% |
Gap said Thursday that same-store sales in the most recent period fell 6 percent, with the biggest declines at its namesake chain and at Old Navy.
Gap stores saw sales fall 7 percent in the five weeks ended April 5, as did Old Navy. Banana Republic did slightly better, with sales down 4 percent.
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"While March performance has been challenging, we remain confident in the opportunities ahead," Gap CEO Glenn Murphy said in a statement.
Gap also warned that gross margins for the fiscal first quarter would decline, with a bigger rate of decline than they posted in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year.
But the company affirmed its earnings-per-share targets for the year.
—By CNBC