Lowes Showing Better Than Expected Results

Many who are watching the housing slump are keeping an eye on Lowes and Home Depot. The two home repair giants are great indicators on how consumers are spending on home repairs and upgrades. Lowes surprised analysts showing improved earnings for the second quarter up to 67 cents a share from 60 cents the previous year.

The improvements came from the parts of the country that did not have the huge run up in housing appreciation. California, Florida, and the Northeast were the worst markets for Lowes, while most of the rest of the country showed gains in sales.

Here's what Robert Niblock, CEO of home-improvement retailer Lowe's, had to say about his company's recent performance:

• "Macro economic factors, including the many aspects of the housing market, continue to result in regionally disparate performance ... Markets in California and Florida, generally considered most pressured by housing, continue to perform significantly worse than average; markets in the Northeast, while still producing negative comparable store sales, are showing encouraging signs of improvement; and the many areas of the country where housing did not accelerate at an unsustainable rate over the past several years delivered positive comparable store sales. As expected, many of the difficult comparisons we faced during the last four quarters are beginning to lessen as we cycle hurricane recovery spending and deflationary price pressures from lumber and plywood."

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