Consumer Cos Up On Rebound Bets -- Consumer Roundup

Shares of retailers and other consumer-services companies ticked up amid optimism about the outlook for a rebound among bricks-and-mortar retailers, despite intensifying competition from online retailers.

Shares of grocery chains were steady as Amazon.com cut prices at its newly acquired Whole Foods Market locations.

Best Buy is hiring hundreds of salespeople to sit down with consumers inside their homes and recommend electronics to buy, as it and rival Amazon.com return to the almost extinct model of door-to-door sales.

Executives and founding family members at Estee Lauder shot down rumors that the cosmetics giant is considering a sale. In a letter to employees, Chief Executive Fabrizio Freda and Executive Chairman William Lauder, whose family controls 90% of voting shares at the company, addressed news reports that the company hired advisers to consider a sale.

-Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 28, 2017 17:02 ET (21:02 GMT)