Can't blame Nordstrom (JWN) for wanting to get the hell out of public markets.
As TheStreet's insanely fast Flash Desk reported Thursday, Nordstrom's stock was up more than 20% on Thursday, after the luxury department store announced that the Nordstrom family has formed a group to explore the possibility of a "going private transaction."
The company's board of directors has formed a "special committee" comprised of independent directors to act on behalf of the company. Nordstrom said that there was no guarantee that it would proceed with going private.
With shares badly lagging the S&P 500 by about 16 percentage points the last year, one can't blame Nordstrom for wanting to be private. The company has always been run as a private fiefdom, with profits often held back by numerous initiatives led by the family. Seeing as the family likely thinks its investments are being ignored by the market and sentiment on retail is terrible, why not be a private company.

More broadly, Nordstrom joins Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) as a retailer exploring going private transactions. For you traders out there, there may be a short-term bottom being formed in beaten-up retail stocks.
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Sears is going up in flames: Stellar feature interview by TheStreet's Michelle Lodge with the former CEO of Sears Canada Mark Cohen. The long-time retail executive pulled no punches in his criticism of Sears CEO Eddie Lampert.
An excerpt:
"This is the ongoing seemingly endless tortuous liquidation of Sears. [CEO Eddie] Lampert has no strategy to make the company profitable.
Now all they're doing is stripping everything that will burn above the waterline of this ship and throwing it all into the water, so the company won't sink. Eventually, when it does sink, they'll pump it out again and refloat it with a smaller boat until there's absolutely nothing left."
Wow, BABA: Alibaba (BABA) shares are going bonkers following an upbeat investor day. Check back throughout the day for TheStreet's coverage of the red-hot Chinese e-commerce company. Hat tip to Jack Ma.
This Tesla run is remarkable: Tesla's (TSLA) shares continue to be unstoppable. They are hovering near a record high of $359.65. But, the company was dealt a rare blow in terms of board composition, TheStreet's Ron Orol points out.
It feels like the internet bubble all over again: FANG stocks -- an acronym for Action Alerts PLUS charity portfolio holding Facebook (FB) , Amazon (AMZN) , Netflix (NFLX) and Google (GOOGL) also continue to be explosive. But chip-maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) also continues to notch big gains amid the rush to bitcoin. Meanwhile, rival NVIDIA (NVDA) caught a massive upgrade by Citigroup. What the heck is going on here?
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