Tough times for sportswear and children's retailing

Thursday´s Index was 1067.99 points, thanks to a last minute

increase of 12.3 from the previous day 1055.69 points.

Last session was dominated by British quoted companies. If Ted Baker performance the best with a hike of 11.4 points, the also UK based JD Sports dropped 19.5 points. The leading athletic sportswear and apparel company was weighted by the last released data on sports clothing, revealing this niche market has registered the worst numbers for the past five years. The news from market research company NPD Group Inc. showed how the worldwide sports market (apparel and equipment sales) declined 4 percent in the U.S. last year. In Japan, sales declined 5 percent. Lastly, here’s the good news — demand is expected to go up in 2010, NPD says. The group is forecasting a sales increase of 1 percent worldwide.

Similar opinion but extended to the whole industry was the one defended by Textiles Intelligence. Their outlook for the US performance apparel market looks encouraging, according to a new report. Following a modest decline in 2009, sales recovered sharply in the early months of 2010. Good news humbly lifted Nike, which gained yesterday 0.01%, while Adidas did the same but with an extra 0.07%. Puma was the spoilt one within sports related companies, with an increase of 1.1%. As oppose to this little joy, Nordstrom, losing 0.27% and Foot Locker, with a drop of 0.45%.

The tumbling in the US stock markets has rapidly reached mayor apparel companies of the country that could not remain indifferent to the surprising report that first-time claims for unemployment benefit unexpectedly rose last week. This news has called into question the sustainability of the economic rebound, according to analysts, and weighted a good number of UIS based apparel quoted companies, such as American Apparel, Bebe Stores, and >Skecher´s. Another fact affecting the American stocks performances is that in the eve of the back-to-school season, brands as Gymboree Group or the Children Retail´s Place are going down.