Consumer Sector Down on Bleak Outlook for Conventional Stores -- Consumer Roundup

Shares of retailers and other consumer-services companies declined as fears about the future of bricks-and-mortar retailers persisted. Shares of Staples Inc. rose after retail-specializing leveraged buyout firm Sycamore Partners agreed to buy the copyshop chain for $6.9 billion. Sycamore plans to split Staples into three businesses: U.S. retail, Canadian retail and corporate-supply, The Wall Street Journal reported. Some institutional investors expressed dissatisfaction with the price tag--$10.25 a share for a company that had traded near $20 a little more than two years ago. It is another sign of the pressure that conventional stores find themselves under as Amazon.com and other online retailers move into more and more categories.

--Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 29, 2017 16:46 ET (20:46 GMT)