Consumer Stocks Improve On Deal Bets - Consumer Roundup

Shares of retailers and other consumer-services companies rose as traders bet there would be more merger activity in the sector. Whole Foods Market continued to gain and traded at a significant premium to Amazon's offer price as traders bet a competing bid for the organic-food chain would emerge. One of the large incumbents in the bricks-and-mortar retail sphere could seek to thwart Amazon's entry to the space by bidding on Whole Foods themselves. An activist investor is pushing the parent of Saks Fifth Avenue to consider strategic alternatives, including possibly taking the company private. Land & Buildings Investment Management LLC, which has accumulated a stake of roughly 4.3% in Hudson's Bay, said in a letter delivered to the company's board Monday that its real estate is worth four times its stock valuation.

-Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 19, 2017 16:30 ET (20:30 GMT)