Retailers Tell Analyst — What Lost Sales?

Hurricane Sandy will affect some retailers worse than others, as stores across the Northeast remain closed ahead of the holiday season, Morgan Stanley retail analyst Kimberly Greenberger told CNBC on Thursday.

"We've got a chart here that shows that Saks, Ann Taylor, Macy's have the least exposure," she said on "Fast Money," adding that she spoke to several retailers earlier in the day.

"Most of them expressed a great degree of confidence in the resiliency of Americans here to recover and bounce back from these kinds of disasters," Greenberger said. "And in the past, retailers have generally seen a surge in sales when everyone's life gets back to normal, so many of them are confident they can recoup most, if not all, of the lost sales here in the early part of November."

Greenberger said that in speaking to big-box retailers, she saw hope that most of them would soon be able to resume business as usual.

Although Kohl's has one store in Brooklyn, N.Y., "that's under water," she said that "the rest of the fleet is really either open already or expected to open any day now at full capacity."

Greenberger said that Macy's stores "are all up and running" and that Nordstrom locations have been materially unaffected.

She added that the updates were "very encouraging in our view from the perspective of the holiday season and an ability to really get back up to full business here over the next sort of eight weeks or so."

Trader disclosure: On Nov. 1, 2012, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Stephanie Link is long AAPL; Stephanie Link is long WFC; Stephanie Link is long SBUX; Stephanie Link is long AIG; Brian Kelly is long SMH; Brian Kelly is long FXP; Brian Kelly is short XLF; Mike Murphy is long AAPL; Mike Murphy is long WFC; Mike Murphy is long TGT; Mike Murphy is long PFE; Mike Murphy is long V; Mike Murphy is long F; Mike Murphy is long CMI.

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