Finance & Capital Management

Home Depot expects to be busy this spring and is hiring 80,000 seasonal employees, 10,000 more than last year, to keep pace with the demand.

The hiring announcement by Home Depot follows a similar announcement by Lowe’s two weeks earlier that it planned to hire 45,000 seasonal employees. The increased hiring levels suggest the nation’s two largest home improvement retailers are optimistic about consumers demand amid a recovery in the housing market.

By Gary Glick, partner, Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP

New York -- J.C. Penney Co. filed a lawsuit on Monday asking a Delaware judge to declare that it is not in a default of its bond agreements, protecting nearly $3 billion of debt from being due in the coming months, Reuters reported.

According to the report, J.C. Penney received a letter earlier on Monday from the Brown Rudnick law firm that said J.C. Penney had breached a covenant of a bond indenture agreement by granting a lien on its inventory. J.C. Penney filed the lawsuit after receiving the letter.     

New York -- Fidelity, the Boston-based investment firm, has bought a 10% stake in C. Wonder, according to Women’s Wear Daily. Founded by Christopher Burch in 2011, the company has since expanded to 10 locations and also operates pop-up stores.

Burch has big plans for C.Wonder, which sells a mix of apparel, accessories and home goods, all under its own label. According to previous reports, he plans to expand it to 50 to 100 stores by the end of 2014, including locations abroad.

Deerfield, Ill. — Walgreens Tuesday morning reported January sales of $6.2 billion, an increase of 6.3% as compared to the same month in fiscal 2012.

Prescriptions filled at comparable stores increased by 13.6% in January and increased 11.6% on a day-fall adjusted basis. This year's January had one additional Wednesday and Thursday and one fewer Sunday and Monday compared with January 2012, positively impacting prescriptions filled in comparable stores by 2 percentage points.

WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation has been outspoken in its criticism of credit card fees and now a group called the Electronic Payments Coalition that represents credit unions,banks and payment card networks is firing back, claiming that the retail lobby is making false statements regarding checkout fees.

New York -- Cache announced that it has appointed Jay Margolis as chairman and CEO of Cache. Concurrent with the appointment, Thomas Reinckens will step down as chairman and CEO.
 
Margolis most recently served as president and CEO of Limited Brands’ Apparel Group (Express and Limited Stores), where he was responsible for revamping the product line and leading the successful operational turnaround of the businesses. Prior to Limited Brands, he was president, COO & director of Reebok International.
 

PITTSBURGH — American Eagle Outfitters has agreed to a mutual termination of its license agreement in China, Hong Kong and surrounding markets with Dickson Concepts (International) Limited. Consistent with its long-term global expansion strategy and the importance of this market, the company took the opportunity to exit its agreement and will assume operation of six existing stores in China and Hong Kong.