JC PENNEY SHARES
TOUCHES ALL-TIME LOW AFTER
SLASHING OUTLOOK
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO Associated Press
NEW YORK — J.C. Penney slashed its annual profit forecast as it accelerated the clearance of slow-moving inventory and warned of weaker sales.
Shares tumbled more than 20 percent to an all-time low Friday, pulling Sears, Dillard's, Kohl's and other retailers down with it.
The S&P index that tracks department stores tumbled 4.8 percent.
The warning was taken as a bad omen for retailers, particularly those that rely on clothing sales, as they head shakily into the crucial holiday shopping season.
Like many department stores, J.C. Penney has tried to reinvent itself as American spending patterns change radically. That transformation has meant less spending on clothes, and more spending on the home, or getting out of it for dinner or a trip to the spa. When money is spent on clothing, increasingly it ends up in the register at discount stores like T.J. Maxx, or more menacingly, at Amazon.com.