Despite consumers cutting back spending, Christine Chen, vice president of equity research at Needham & Company, still feels bullish about the back-to-school retail industry.   Read More

Two pieces of positive news this morning: 1) Wal-Mart sales better than expected and raising guidance, and 2) Dow Chemicalspacer buying Rohm and Haas. Jobless claims lower than expected is also a help.   Read More

With the third quarter just around the corner, Morgan Keegan senior analyst Brad Stephens offered CNBC some ideas about buying retail stocks.   Read More

How long can a slow economy mean good times at Wal-Mart? The company is betting that the traffic boost from rebate checks will carry into June and that grocery sales will still be strong in the month ahead. That’s why they’re forecasting sales up between 2-4%.    Read More

The original bid for Alitalia by Air France-KLM was based on an oil price of $86 a barrel, according to the Deputy CEO of Air France, in an interview on CNBC Europe. Those talks were shelved a month ago, but at $120 to $130, the Deputy CEO said that Air France-KLM would have to come up with a more "difficult and demanding" business plan.    Read More

Stacey Widlitz of Pali Research and Piper Jaffray's Jeff Klinefelter have come up with four "must-have" retail stocks.   Read More

The Dow achieved modest gains on Thursday despite another new record in crude oil prices. What's the "Word on the Street?   Read More

As expected, the ECB and the Bank of England left interest rates unchanged; the ECB at 4.0 percent. Futures dipped a bit at 8:50 am ET as Mr. Trichet began talking, giving his usual speech on the importance of combating inflation.    Read More

Ahead of same-store sales Thursday, discover 3 stocks being watched closely by options trader Jon Najarian!   Read More

The dollar is weak again; Band of England lowered rates, but Europe has been weak right from the open and that weakness has spilled over into our futures. Elsewhere: 1) March retail sales were again fairly sluggish...    Read More