Raphael Stevens

Lululemon raised its fourth quarter earnings and revenue guidance after striking a cautious tone in the lead up to the holiday shopping season.
Abercrombie & Fitch also raised its guidance but only slightly, sending shares lower.
Early reads have shown the holiday shopping season may have been better than expected, but was far from the blowout seen in previous years.

A shopping bag from Abercrombie & Fitch (L), and the logo of Lululemon (R).

ORLANDO, Fla. — Lululemon and Abercrombie & Fitch raised their fourth quarter outlooks on Monday after seeing a strong response from shoppers during the all-important holiday season. 
Lululemon’s new outlook went over well with investors, leading shares to rise about 3% in premarket trading. But Abercrombie shares dropped about 8% as investors wonder if its rapid growth is coming to an end.

Lululemon now expects sales to grow between 11% and 12% to between $3.56 billion and $3.58 billion, up from a previous range of $3.48 billion and $3.51 billion. 
Excluding an additional fiscal week the company will have in the fourth quarter of 2024, Lululemon expects sales growth of between 6% and 7%. 
The company also hiked its profit outlook. Lululemon is now forecasting fourth-quarter earnings per share to be between $5.81 and $5.85, compared to previous guidance of between $5.56 and $5.64. It expects gross margins to grow by 0.3 percentage points after previously forecasting they would decline between 0.2 and 0.3 percentage points. 
“During the holiday season, our guests responded well to our product offering, enabling us to increase our fourth quarter guidance,” finance chief Meghan Frank said in a statement. 
Meanwhile, Abercrombie also expects its holiday quarter to be slightly better than anticipated. The apparel company nudged up its net sales growth outlook to a range of between 7% and 8%, compared to previous guidance of between 5% and 7%. 

Abercrombie now expects full-year sales to grow 15%. It previously expected sales to rise between 14% and 15% for the period.
The outlook is a far cry from the blockbuster numbers that Abercrombie put out last year, when holiday sales jumped by a staggering 21% compared to the year-ago period. 
Investors bullish on Abercrombie would say that it makes sense to see the company’s growth start to slow down as it matures and laps tougher comparisons from the year-ago period, but following about two years of explosive stock growth, some could be turning bearish. 
Still, Abercrombie’s full year-sales guidance is close to what it put out last year, when revenue grew by 16%. 
In a news release, Abercrombie CEO Fran Horowitz signaled that moving forward, the company will be more focused on boosting profits than sales as it looks to “drive long-term shareholder value.” 
“Following an expected two years of double-digit top and bottom-line growth, I am as confident as ever in the power of our brands and operating model as we move forward, supported by the outstanding capabilities we’ve built,” said Horowitz. “In 2025, we will look to continue sustainable, profitable growth through the execution of our playbooks to win and retain customers around the world. Our goal is to leverage our healthy margin structure and balance sheet to grow operating income dollars and earnings per share at rates faster than sales.” 
The retailers released their guidance ahead of the annual ICR conference in Orlando when some of the most prominent U.S. retailers are expected to announce early holiday results and meet with investors and analysts about their performance. The conference brings together Wall Street’s biggest banks, law firms, private equity firms and investors and is known to set the tone for consumer deal making and retailer performance at the start of the year. 
Macy’s, which is expected to present at the conference, also released early results but didn’t have good news to share like some of its competitors. The department store is now expecting sales to be at, or slightly below, its previously issued range of between $7.8 billion to $8.0 billion. Shares fell more than 3% in premarket trading.
Urban Outfitters also released early holiday results and said net sales for the two months ended Dec. 31 grew 10% compared to the year-ago period. Comparable retail segment sales rose 6%, driven by strong online sales.
Urban’s namesake banner saw comparable sales fall 4% as the chain continued to underperform Anthropologie and Free People, where comparable sales grew 10% and 9%, respectively.
Meanwhile, sales soared 55% at Urban’s rental service Nuuly, driven by a 53% increase in average active subscribers.
Shares moved slightly higher in premarket trading.
Overall, the holiday shopping season wasn’t expected to produce the blowout numbers that became common in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. The National Retail Federation said it was expecting sales to grow between 2.5% and 3.5%. When inflation is taken into account, real growth was expected to be minimal.
Still, some early reads have signaled that the holiday season may be a bit better than expected. 
Retail sales for the holiday season in the U.S., excluding automotive sales, rose 3.8% year over year between Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which measures in-store and online sales across payment types. More

Nordstrom raised its full-year sales outlook after holiday spending came in better than expected at its website and stores.
Yet the department store operator stuck by its profit outlook.
CEO Erik Nordstrom credited the company’s “efforts to remain competitive in the promotional environment and the strength of our offering.”

Shoppers walk into a Nordstrom department store in Austin, Texas, on March 3, 2023.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Nordstrom on Friday raised its full-year sales outlook, after holiday shopping at its stores and on its website came in stronger than the department store’s cautious expectations.
The company stuck by its profit guidance despite the higher sales guidance.

The Seattle-based retailer said it now expects full-year revenue growth of 1.5% to 2.5%, which includes the effect of having one fewer fiscal week. That compares to its previous outlook of flat to up 1%.
Nordstrom struck a conservative note with its outlook in late November, despite topping Wall Street’s expectations for fiscal third-quarter sales. It had projected full-year revenue to range from flat to up 1%. It said adjusted earnings for the year would range between $1.75 and $2.05 per share. Its revenue includes retail sales and credit card revenue.
On an earnings call at the time, CEO Erik Nordstrom said the company had seen “a noticeable decline in sales trends towards the end of October” and factored that into its forecast.
Yet in a news release on Friday, he chalked up better-than-expected holiday sales to the company’s “efforts to remain competitive in the promotional environment and the strength of our offering.”
Nordstrom said net sales rose 4.9% and comparable sales, a metric that takes out the effect of store openings and closures, increased 5.8% for the nine-week holiday period that ended Jan. 4 compared with the year-ago quarter that ended Dec. 30.

During the holiday period, net sales at the Nordstrom banner increased 3.7% and comparable sales rose 6.5%. At Nordstrom Rack, the company’s off-price banner, net sales were up 7.4% and comparable sales increased 4.3%.
The department store operator’s results provide more insights for investors monitoring the health of U.S. consumers and the performance of retailers during the key shopping season. Retailers, including Walmart, Best Buy, Macy’s and others, will report earnings starting in late February.
So far, early holiday numbers have looked promising. Online spending in the U.S. rose nearly 9% from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 compared to the year-ago period and totaled $241.4 billion, according to Adobe Analytics. Retail sales for the holiday season in the U.S., excluding automotive sales, rose 3.8% year over year for the period from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which measures in-store and online sales across payment types.
Nordstrom’s update comes as the founding family prepares to take the retailer private. Nordstrom announced in late December a roughly $6.25 billion buyout deal with the family and Mexican department store El Puerto de Liverpool. The transaction, which was approved by the company’s board of directors, is expected to close in the first half of 2025.
Shares of Nordstrom closed at $24.01, down roughly 4% from its 52-week high. The company is scheduled to report its full fourth-quarter and full-year results on March 4.

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American Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest, JetBlue and other carriers waived change fees and fare differences to the Los Angeles area.
The wildfires have burned more than 10,000 homes and other structures.
A Delta Air Lines executive said sales of Los Angeles flights have declined.

In this aerial view taken from a helicopter, burned homes are seen during the Palisades fire in the Malibu area of Los Angeles county, California, on Jan. 9, 2025.
Josh Edelson | Afp | Getty Images

Airlines have extended travel waivers for Los Angeles airports as wildfires continue to burn in the area.
American Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airways and other carriers that serve the area have waived fees for flight changes for travelers booked to Los Angeles while the city grapples with power outages, water shortages and conservation, as well as the outright damage of more than 10,000 homes and other structures.

On Friday, the area’s airports were operating normally, according to flight-tracking platform FlightAware, but parts of the city were still in the grip of the wildfires. Power outages were reported across Los Angeles County and local residents in the decimated Pacific Palisades area were told to boil or use bottled water. Parts of the county were also still under evacuation orders as firefighters sought to contain the fires.

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American Airlines on Friday said travelers booked to or from Hollywood Burbank Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Ontario International Airport and John Wayne Airport, which serves Orange County, can rebook without paying a change fee or fare difference if they can fly as late as Jan. 20.
Southwest said the wildfires could affect service to those airports and that customers can rebook within 14 days of their original travel dates without additional charges. It said customers could also change their trips to other California cities: Palm Springs, Santa Barbara and San Diego.
Meanwhile, a Delta Air Lines executive on Friday said sales of flights to Los Angeles, one of the carrier’s busiest hubs and a generator of high-value business and leisure travel, have declined.
“We monitor sales on a daily basis by geographic region, and we have seen a decline in sales, not a wholesale reduction or an uptick in cancellations, but a decline in sales during this period,” Delta’s president, Glen Hauenstein, said on an earnings call, in which the airline also said it had otherwise strong travel demand across its network. “As soon as the period ends, we can probably put a wrapper around how much we thought that cost us. But I don’t think it’s going to be significant to the quarter, hopefully not.”

Hauenstein said, however, that there is often an uptick in demand after natural disasters because of rebuilding.
“Our hearts go out to everybody in Los Angeles affected by this,” he said. “But from a long-term airline perspective, we faced hurricanes, we faced flooding, we faced all that. And usually, the impacts are in the beginning phases, followed by a recovery phase.”

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Airlines canceled more than 3,000 U.S. flights while more than 3,000 more were delayed.
A massive winter storm snarled travel across the Southern U.S.
A Delta flight aborted takeoff and evacuated passengers via slides at Atlanta’s airport, further disrupting operations.

Snow blankets the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as a winter storm moves into the area on Jan. 10, 2025.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Airlines canceled more than 3,000 flights on Friday as a massive winter storm snarled travel across the Southern U.S., while more than 4,000 others were delayed.
Operations were further disrupted after a Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-300 halted takeoff because of an engine problem, shortly after 9 a.m. at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest and Delta’s main hub. The 201 passengers and seven crew members aboard were evacuated on emergency slides.

Four passengers reported minor injuries, with one transported and three treated on the scene, according to an airport spokesperson.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it’s investigating the incident.
“Delta’s flight crew followed established procedures to suspend the takeoff of flight 2668 from Atlanta (ATL) to Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) after an indication of an engine issue,” Delta said. “Nothing is more important than the safety of our people and customers, and we apologize to our customers for their experience. We are working to support our customers and get them to their destinations as safely and quickly as possible.”
Some 1,100 flights to and from Atlanta, more than half of the day’s schedule, were canceled, while upward of 400 more were delayed, according to flight tracker FlightAware. The airport had a ground stop in place, which halts flights bound for that airport at their origin so the facility isn’t overwhelmed with planes.

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Two of American Airlines’ hubs of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Charlotte Douglas International Airport were also heavily affected by the storm, with more than 1,200 flights to and from those two airports canceled. Most of DFW’s flights were also canceled on Thursday as the storm dumped snow in the area.
Delta, Southwest, American and other carriers waived change fees and fare differences because of the storms and severe weather. More