Business news with words department+earnings+store. 4 news.

US stocks were weaker as investors took a step back from recent sharp gains with poor earnings from Sears, the department store group, weighing on sentiment

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Macy's Inc. swung to a third-quarter profit of $33 million, or 8 cents a share, from a year-earlier loss of $3 million, or 1 cent a share. Excluding May Co. merger integration costs of $17 million, earnings for the period were 10 cents a share. The Cincinnati department store chain operator said revenue for the thirteen weeks ended Nov. 3 rose less than 1% to $5.91 billion from $5.89 billion during the year-ago period. On average, analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected earnings of 7 cents a share on revenue of $5.9 billion. Macy's expects earnings, excluding items, of $1.70 to $1.80 a share for the fourth-quarter. The company expects same-store sales in the range of down 2% to up 1% for the fourth-quarter and expects November same-store sales to be "significantly" higher and December to be "below last year." Macy's expects total sales for the fourth quarter of $8.7 billion to $8.9 billion. The company expects same-store sales to be down 0.3% to 1.3% for the year. Total sales for the year are expected at $26.4 billion to $26.6 billion.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Kohl's Corp.'s October same-store sales fell 3.8%, hurt by "significant declines" in weather-sensitive businesses such as outerwear, fleece and sweaters. On average, analysts polled by Thomson Financial predicted an October same-store sales increase of 0.5%. The Wisconsin department store chain's total sales for the four-week period ended Nov. 3 rose 1.6% to $1.27 billion over the four-week period ended Oct. 28, 2006. Based on October's results, Kohl's expects third-quarter earnings in the range of 59 cents to 60 cents a share.

(Crain's) - Shares in Sears Holdings Corp. jumped as much as 4.3% on reports that hedge fund manager William Ackman purchased a stake in the biggest U.S. department store chain - sparking speculation the activist investor will push Chairman Edward Lampert to sell stores to boost earnings. Mr. ...