MIDDAY LUNCH

Dow 10643.42  -37.01, Nasdaq 2290.17  -13.40, S&P 1122.54  -4.70 

Stocks are continuing to trade to the down side with not much enthusiasm.  Stocks started off in the red due to a worse than expected jobless claims.  Jobless claims came in at 479,000 versus the 460,000 expected and continuing claims came in at 4,537,000 versus 4,500,000 that economists had expected.

Consumer Non-Cyclical and Consumer Cyclical are the two worst performers, down -1.27% and -0.57 respectively.

Retail stocks are up on news that Macy’s (M) 19.56 +012, +0.62% reported strong same-store sales for July and raised guidance. Target (TGT) 52.71 +1.21, +2.35% shares are also higher even thought the company reported same-store sales that were below expectations.

TJX Companies (TJX) 41.21 +1.09, +2.65% and Potash (POT) 114.40 +3.01, +2.70% are also strong today.