Retail comments, CrowdStrike jabs Palo Alto/Yen rising as we hear from 'people familiar with the matter'

I'll jump right to some of the earnings call comments with the focus on the US consumer and that consumer continues to be value seeking and somewhat guarded, depending on where the income scale one is in. 

From Target:

With respect to Q4, "Discretionary declines moderated. Traffic trends rebounded."

This was from the Chief Growth Officer, "I want to start with an outlook on the consumer, which remains mixed. While there are some encouraging signs in the economy, there are also stubborn pressures impacting families and retail. Consumers say they still feel stretched. They are balancing a lot and having to make trade offs to meet their needs of their families while sprinkling in the occasional luxury. And yet, their affinity for style and newness, plus early signs of disinflation, contributed to a sequential uptick in discretionary category performance over the last two quarters, something we aim to build on and accelerate. At the same time, we expect consumers will remain highly value conscious, hunting for great promotions and seeking comprehensive value in their purchases."

For 2024, "On the top line, we're still planning cautiously, given the consumer spending patterns we've seen for two full years now. More specifically, on the discretionary side of our business, even as we've seen improving trends over the last two quarters, overall demand remains soft as spending patterns continue to normalize from pandemic peaks. In our frequency businesses, we're anticipating a further recovery in unit trends this year as inflation continues to moderate. Altogether, we're planning for a modest increase in comp sales in the zero to 2% range for the year."

"we're planning for shrink rates to remain approximately flat in 2024."

From Ross Stores:

While the stock is down pre market, their 7% quarterly comp was "entirely driven by higher traffic and shoppers' positive response to our improved assortments throughout our stores."

While they had a good holiday season, "there remains ongoing uncertainty in the macroeconomic and geopolitical environments. In addition, while inflation has moderated, prices for necessities like housing, food, and gasoline remain elevated and continue to pressure the low to moderate income customers' discretionary spend. While we hope to do better, we believe it is prudent to continue to take a conservative approach to forecasting our business in 2024."