Jewelry retailer Finlay Enterprises Inc filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Manhattan court late on Wednesday 5 August and said it would sell its assets in an auction supervised by the bankruptcy court.
Hot Topic Inc posted a slightly narrower-than-expected 8.5 percent drop in July sales at stores open at least a year, while second-quarter net sales trailed market estimates.
Skate and snow-boarding inspired retailer Zumiez Inc posted a narrower-than-expected 16.8 percent fall in July sales at stores open for at least a year. Analysts on average expected July same-store sales at the retailer to fall 20.8 percent.
General Growth Properties Inc, the large U.S. mall operator that filed for bankruptcy in April, reported a 2.1 percent decline in quarterly net operating income from its retail properties, citing weakness in the economy and falling occupancy rates.
Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on tighter cost control and forecast third-quarter profit above Wall Street expectations.
Italy's Mariella Burani Fashion Group said it was not involved in a reported investigation. La Repubblica had said, in an unsourced report, that prosecutors had opened an inquiry into possible market-rigging and false accounting at the company.
Macerich Co, which owns malls chiefly in U.S. western regions, reported quarterly funds from operations that just missed Wall Street expectations, as occupancy fell.
EBay Inc's online payments service, PayPal, shut down worldwide for about an hour on Monday 3 August after the Internet retailer encountered "internal" problems with the fast-growing division.
Gap Inc. shrunk its carbon footprint by 20 percent over the past five years through lighting retrofits, sourcing renewable energy and an energy management program that targets energy-intensive stores.
U.S. retailers could post their 11th consecutive drop in monthly same-store sales this week as cool weather, a weak job market, and a lack of tax-free holidays had shoppers picking through the clearance racks in July instead of buying full-priced back-to-school clothes.
German retail sales posted a surprise drop of 1.8 percent in June, but analysts disagreed over whether the provisional data was really bad news for Europe's biggest economy.
Mexico's peso pared gains to trade nearly flat after key U.S. economic data showed consumer spending in the United States shrank in the second quarter, pointing to a sluggish recovery for Mexico's exports.
General Electric Co said it had renewed its agreement to provide Wal-Mart Stores Inc's private-label credit cards for the next six years, in a move the biggest U.S. conglomerate said signaled its commitment to the credit card business.
British mutually-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership said it plans to start selling non-food products from its John Lewis department stores through its Waitrose supermarket's website.
Shares in web retailer eBay could be worth 30 percent more than current prices as a promised turnaround in its core online-auction business begins to yield results.
