One Chart That Explains Why Traders Are Shorting Retail Stocks Like Crazy
Short interest in a retail ETF has hit 273 percent of float.
U.S. Retail Sales Rise 0.6% in December
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December's U.S. retail sales figures have reinforced that the secular shift from in-store to online spending shows no signs of slowing down. Department stores now account for just 2.67 percent of all retail sales, compared to 10.44 percent for non-store retailers.
As a testament to the gloomy outlook for brick-and-mortar retailers, short interest in the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (ticker: XRT) has soared to 273 percent of float, the highest among U.S. equity products at the end of 2016. On Jan. 4, Macy's Inc. and Kohl's Corp. pointed to weak holiday sales when slashing their full-year earnings forecasts during the after-hours session.