The consumer discretionary group is slightly underperforming the broader market in early trade. The retail group is mixed with the Retail HOLDRS Trust (RTH) up 0.1% and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) down 0.1%. Trading higher following earnings/guidance: MMM +1.9%, CPWM +1.3%, TOL +0.8%... Trading lower following earnings/guidance: DRI -8.4%, PBY -2.3%... Near unchanged mark following earnings/guidance: LOW, AZO.
Other notable mentions: Expedia (EXPE flat) signs new multi-year agreement with United Airlines... Starwood Hotels & Resorts (HOT flat) announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire 49.8% of the shares of Design Hotels AG from Arabella Hospitality SE, one of Starwood's longtime partners in Germany... Helen of Troy announces definitive agreement to acquire PUR Business from The Procter & Gamble (PG flat)... Leaders: Higher One Holdings (ONE +4.4%) will replace National Retail Properties in the S&P SmallCap 600 index... Lin TV (TVL +1.4%) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, LIN Television, is seeking to raise additional term loan commitments under its existing senior secured credit facility.
Analyst related: Upgrades: LinkedIn (LNKD +4.1%) upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan, upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley and named a long Research Tactical Idea at Morgan Stanley. Orbitz (OWW +7.7%) upgraded to Buy at The Benchmark Company... Downgrades: THQ Inc (THQI -5.0%) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Cowen... Misc: eBay (EBAY +1.2%) named a long Research Tactical Idea at Morgan Stanley. OpenTable (OPEN -0.4%) initiated with a Neutral at Piper Jaffray. Monster Worldwide (MWW +1.0%) initiated with a Buy at Lazard. K12 (LRN flat) initiated with a Outperform at Barrington Research.






