Retail Earnings Are In, and Dollar Tree Wins

Major retailers Target (NYSE:TGT), Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR), and The TJX Companies (NYSE:TJX) reported earnings on Wednesday before the bell, and reactions are coming in all over the place. Retail stocks were brought into sharp focus earlier in the month when news got out that Wal-Mart’s (NYSE:WMT) sales were off to a terrible start. Fears that the expiration of the payroll tax would have a material impact on consumer spending spread quickly, but recently-released data and retail earnings have encouraged a more glass-half-full outlook.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what retail earnings have looked like recently. J. C. Penney (NYSE:JCP) is the odd man out in the table, and will be reporting its results on Wednesday after the markets close.

At a glance, it’s easy to see that results were largely in line with or above expectations, but the market’s reaction was not all positive…