Piper Jaffray: Women's Specialty Disappoints on Start of Black Friday

Piper Jaffray notes a slow start for Women's Specialty retailers on Black Friday and expects inventories to be bloated by promotional effort so far disproportionate to traffic. Piper Jaffray says, “For women's apparel retailers, we are generally noticing steeper markdowns and higher levels of promotional activity relative to last year, particularly for Ann Taylor, Chico's, Christopher & Banks, Coldwater Creek, Loft, and Talbots. Black Friday is not typically a major shopping event for this group of retailers, and based on our own observations thus far this morning, we are not optimistic that today's strong traffic will do much to help this group lower its collective inventory position. We are observing only modest lines at the cash wraps for this group, which is disappointing given the increased promotional activity.” As mentioned, stocks in play include: Ann Taylor

, Chico's FAS

, Christopher & Banks Corp.

, Coldwater Creek Inc.

and The Talbots, Inc.

.