Today's Analysis on Wal-Mart and Target: Discount Variety Stores Reserved Optimism

LONDON, January 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

December consumer spending beat expectations according to recent data released by the Commerce Department. But tax hikes and online competition could pose challenges to discount variety stores players such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corporation. At the close of Wednesday's trading session, StockCall's analysts compiled free technical research on these top companies and they are readily available at

http://www.stockcall.com/report

During the month of December, sales rose by 0.5 percent, following a 0.4 percent November improvement, which makes for a relatively strong holiday season. This time of year is particularly important to retailers such as discount variety stores, which include giants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT), as it can constitute up to 40 percent of their yearly sales. While the holidays were plagued by concerns regarding the fiscal cliff it seems that improvements to jobs and home values helped to boost spending. Sign up today to get our free technical report on Wal-Mart at

http://www.StockCall.com/WMT011713.pdf

Competition, particularly from online retailers, remains a key issue for the industry which is renowned for a wide selection and low prices. Over the holiday season many industry players worked hard to enhance their online offerings, and some also put in place price matching offers which extended to online retailers. It seems that these trends are going to remain strong in the New Year. Target Corporation [Free Report on TGT]⁽¹⁾ has been able to deflect the threats from online counterparts to some extent by providing exclusive products which encourages people to want to visit their stores as they know they will not find those products through online retailers.

Positive spending figures have been encouraging for the overall industry, but tax increases could put a damper on things in 2013. The two percent tax hike is expected to be most keenly felt by middle and lower income families, so could affect sales at discount variety stores. On the other hand, lower levels of disposable income could also drive more people in search of a deal, which would benefit the industry and specifically Wal-Mart which prides itself for having the lowest prices.

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1. Target Corporation Technical Analysis [ http://www.StockCall.com/TargetCorporation011713.pdf  ]

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