LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - The novel coronavirus pandemic will push department store chain Macy's back into the red on a full-year basis as its sales are hammered lower, the company said on Thursday.
However, the company had witnessed better-than-expected demand since it began reopening some stores.

Management lowered its forecast for full-year sales to drop to a range of $3.0-3.03bn in 2020, well below the $3.6bn that analysts at FactSet had penciled-in and far beneath the previous year's tally of $5.5bn.

As a result, instead of operating income of $203m as in 2019, operating losses of between $905m and $1.11bn were now anticipated.

The company, whose stores had been shut since 18 March, began reopening its doors on 4 May, where allowed, and expected most of its stores to have reopened by late June.

Its first quarter results meanwhile were scheduled for 1 July.

However, company boss, Jeff Gennette, said customer demand thus far since it had reopened was "moderately higher" than the firm had anticipated.

As of 1314 GMT, shares of Macy's were 0.20% lower to $5.06.

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