Budgets/Spending/Market Size

Houston -- Stage Stores Inc.'s second-quarter net income dropped 18% and the department store operator lowered its expectations for the year.

The retailer earned $9.6 million in the quarter that ended Aug. 3, compared to $11.7 million last year.

Revenue rose more than 3% to $395.3 million, missing Wall Street expectations.

Grapevine, Texas -- GameStop’s net income for the second quarter fell to $10.5 million in the year-ago period, but its performance was better than analysts expected. The chain issued a higher-than-expected full-year forecast saying that it expects next-generation gaming consoles to fuel consumer demand.

Total revenue was down 10.7% to $1.38 billion in the quarter ended July 31. Same-store sales dropped 10.7%

Phoenix -- PetSmart said Wednesday that its second-quarter net income rose 19% on improved sales. The retailer also boosted its full-year earnings forecast.

PetSmart Inc. earned $93.4 million for the period ended Aug. 4, compared to $78.5 million a year ago.

Revenue rose 5.3% to $1.71 billion from $1.62 billion. Services sales, which are included in total sales, grew 7.3% to $205 million.

Same-store sales increased 3.4%.

Signs of a rebounding housing market were evident in Lowe's sales for the second quarter ended Aug. 2, which were $15.7 billion, up 10.3% from $14.2 billion in the same quarter last year.

Comp-store sales for the world's second-largest home improvement retailer were up 9.6%, as net earnings jumped 16.2% to $1.48 billion.

New York -- The Deloitte Consumer Spending Index remained flat in July as improvements in real housing prices and labor markets offset weakness in other areas. The Index, which tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending, remained at 4.4 this month.  

Washington, D.C. -- U.S. retail e-commerce sales for second quarter 2013, adjusted for seasonal variation, but not for price changes, totaled $64.8 billion, an increase of 4.9% from first quarter 2013. According to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, this figure represented an 18.4% jump from U.S. commerce sales in second quarter 2012.

E-commerce sales in the second quarter of 2013 accounted for 5.8% of total U.S. retail sales of close to $1.13 trillion. Total retail sales grew 0.9% quarter-over-quarter and 4.7% year-over-year.

Yesterday’s release of disappointing sales and profits at Walmart was hardly unexpected, but it heightened concerns about the health of the consumer and sparked a broader market sell-off.

Washington, D.C. -- U.S. retail sales edged up 0.2% in July from June, according to figures from the Department of Commerce. This followed a 0.6% month-over-month boost in sales in June, driven by strong auto sales. The slower sales uptick reflected a drop in purchases of automobiles, along with furniture and electronics.