Another profit warning from the high street footwear retailer Shoe Zone in today’s trading update saw the shares tumble in early trade on Tuesday. Higher shipping costs owing to freighters avoiding the Red Sea combined with the poor spring weather impacting consumer behaviour have created a difficult set of conditions. Full year profits had previously been forecast as coming in at more than £15m, that was then revised down to £13.8m in May but has today slipped to being not less than £10m. Shares traded down by more than 20% shortly after the open before recovering to sit 15% down by 9am.
More disappointing news from the retail sector with J Sainsbury posting a trading update this morning. Whilst the grocer is winning market share, it was the performance of non-food lines that seemed to take a toll on sentiment this morning. Again the disappointing start to the summer appears to be the culprit here, whilst sales of electronics and gaming items via its Argos channel were also weak, arguably reflecting current consumer priorities. The stock was the worst performer in the FTSE-100, sitting almost 4% lower in early trade.
Traffic figures from June for Eastern Europe’s largest low cost airline were also published this morning, but with capacity growing faster than passenger numbers and news that fleet plans are set to be disrupted over the next couple of years gave little cause for cheer. The stock was trading around 3.5% lower by 9am on Tuesday.
Headlines we expect on Wednesday
Cairn Homes Trading Update
This time last year Core Revenue €215m, 535 Home Sales Closed, Closed & Forward Sales Pipeline 2,230 homes
