Off-price retailer TJX Cos raised annual profit forecast after quarterly results beat estimates on Wednesday, banking on gains from easing costs and strong demand for its affordable apparel and accessories.

Shares of the company were up about 5 percent in early trading.

Over the past six quarters, TJX has kept prices low to attract shoppers who are worried about spending in an inflationary environment.

With newer product assortments and well-maintained inventories, the company has been able to lure in customers looking for their back-to-school purchases.

According to the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau, US retail sales rose more than expected in July as consumers kept spending by bargain hunting and trading down to affordable substitutes.

“The relatively stronger performance of TJ Maxx and Marshall’s reflects the rising popularity of these fashion-oriented stores among shoppers looking to refresh their wardrobes on a budget,” said Sky Canaves, analyst with eMarketer.

TJX said its third quarter is off to a “strong start” and sees more buying opportunities in the marketplace as it is well-positioned to ship fresh merchandise to both stores and online in the upcoming fall and holiday seasons.

Furthermore, benefits from easing freight costs helped TJX earn quarterly profit of 96 cents per share, versus analysts’ estimates of 92 cents apiece.

The company expects annual earnings per share of $4.09 to $4.13, above earlier forecast of $4.03 to $4.09.

It reported net sales of $13.47 billion in the quarter ended Aug. 3, compared with analysts’ estimates of $13.31 billion, according to LSEG data.

TJX said it has agreed to invest about $360 million for a 35 percent stake in Brands For Less, a privately held off-price branded apparel and home fashions retailer in Dubai.

It also maintained the upper end of its annual comparable sales forecast of a 3 percent rise.

By Anuja Bharat Mistry; editing by Alan Barona

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TJX Posts Upbeat Q1, Lifts Annual Profit View on Robust Demand

Lower prices compared to department stores and cooling inflation have allowed shoppers more room to shop outside just essentials, boosting demand across product categories for the off-price retailer.

A federal judge ruled the US Federal Trade Commission can’t enforce its near-total ban on noncompete agreements that was set to go into effect next month, blocking an effort by the agency to make labour markets more competitive.

In a ruling Tuesday, US District Judge Ada Brown in Dallas sided with the US Chamber of Commerce and a Texas-based tax firm that sued to block the measure. The judge said the FTC lacked the authority to enact the ban, which she said was “unreasonably overbroad without a reasonable explanation.”

The ruling represents a significant blow for the FTC and further divides the judiciary over the regulator’s powers. A federal judge in Pennsylvania had previously sided with the FTC. The rule is likely to be headed for appellate review. Brown had previously delayed implementation of the ban, which was scheduled to take effect on Sept. 4.

“We are disappointed by Judge Brown’s decision and will keep fighting to stop noncompetes that restrict the economic liberty of hardworking Americans, hamper economic growth, limit innovation, and depress wages,” FTC spokesperson Victoria Graham said in a statement. “We are seriously considering a potential appeal.”

The US Chamber of Commerce called the ruling a significant win in its “fight against government micromanagement of business decisions.”

The FTC’s rule was “an unlawful extension of power that would have put American workers, businesses and our economy at a competitive disadvantage,” the chamber said in a statement.

Noncompete agreements have become increasingly common in the US, with an estimated 20 percent of workers — roughly 30 million Americans — subject to them. The agency had argued the provisions harm workers, while employers claimed they help protect their investments in employees. Only a handful of states bar noncompetes.

A ban on such agreements would impact businesses and people across the workforce — everyone from doctors to tax professionals to hair stylists — and shift the balance of power between bosses and staff.

The FTC maintains that it had the authority to approve the rule in April, as part of its duty to ward off unfair methods of competition. Graham said the agency will still seek to protect workers limited by noncompete agreements.

“Today’s decision does not prevent the FTC from addressing noncompetes through case-by-case enforcement actions,” Graham said.

Brown’s decision could be appealed to the conservative US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The appeals court has become a favourite for conservative opponents of President Joe Biden’s policies related to federal regulatory power, guns, abortion and social media regulation.

The case in Dallas is one of three lawsuits challenging the FTC’s non-compete rule and the most advanced. The others are pending in Florida and Pennsylvania, with one judge initially siding with the FTC and the other against. Neither of those suits has yet reached a final determination on the FTC’s rule making authority.

The case is Ryan v. Federal Trade Commission, 3:24-cv-00986, US District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas).

By Madlin Mekelburg

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The Rise and Fall of Noncompete Clauses, Explained

A US regulator has banned most uses of the clauses, which started as a way for fashion companies to prevent senior executives from walking off with trade secrets, but have become a standard retention tool.

For the past four years, 31-year-old Sonam Shah has been part of an after-work running club in London, frequented by a mixture of city workers and creative types.

Shah was never one of the group’s “cool kids,” not seeing the appeal of buying $300 supershoes from Nike or Adidas or wearing a technical hydration vest for a casual 5k run around a park. But around a year ago, her cultural cachet took off when someone asked her what tech she uses to track her fitness.

The device — a wrist-strap sensor from Whoop, a Boston-based wearable tech company — did not even track how far or how fast she ran, but rather how deeply she’d slept the night before, her stress levels and her cardiovascular capacity, aggregating those and thousands of other data points into digestible “scores” that told her how prepared she was for certain activities.

“It was like a switch had flicked,” she said. “All of a sudden it didn’t matter that I didn’t run a 5K in under 30 minutes … now all anybody wanted to speak about was their recovery score and heart rate variability.”

Running was historically one of the most stripped-down sports there was. It required no field, no teammates and no special equipment beyond gym clothes and a basic pair of running shoes. (Even those are optional: Mexico’s Tarahumara still do their miles in sandals.)

But today, even casual runners routinely outfit themselves in the latest technical apparel, footwear designed in a high-tech lab and any number of gadgets to track their health. These wearables themselves have evolved from the Fitbits of the 2010s used for daily step counts to products like Whoop and the Oura ring as awareness grows that factors like sleep, hormonal cycles and stress can have as much impact on your performance as the gear you wear.

Among the growing hoards of everyday athletes who frequent popular run clubs, run marathons or take part in high-performance competitions like Hyrox, these products have quickly become status symbols.

Shah said while people still compare what shoes they’re buying for the next race and what times they expect to achieve, the emphasis has shifted to discussing the data gleaned from their wearable tech. Almost every person who shows up wears either a Whoop or an Oura ring.

“Health and wellness is 100 percent the new status symbol,” said 24-year-old former footballer and fitness enthusiast Elliot Johnson, who recently completed an internship at Nike and is now training for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in New Zealand later this year. Johnson, who is also big advocate for wearable tech, uses both a Garmin smartwatch and an Oura ring, which give him data about his performance, wellness and recovery far beyond the level he had access to even as a youth footballer.

An Aspirational Product

Companies like Oura and Whoop have savvily marketed their products as indispensable items to people like elite athletes, celebrities and CEOs, cementing them as part of the daily routines of high-performing figures. Oura’s rings, for instance, have been used by Real Madrid, the England national football team and organisations such as the NBA, NASCAR and UFC. They’re also worn by figures like Kim Kardashian and Prince Harry.

Whoop’s wrist strap was seen on several Olympic athletes, including gold medalist Sha’Carri Richardson, while the company has also raised investment from Cristiano Ronaldo, who’d been a regular customer of the business for around two years before they had a commercial relationship, said founder and chief executive Will Ahmed.

“If you go back 10 years, this sort of technology was only reserved for the elite, who’d have to go to a lab and strap into these clunky devices,” said Dorothy Kilroy, Oura’s chief commercial officer.

Now, regular consumers can have access to the same level of health tracking. Whoop’s monthly membership costs around $30, while the initial outlay for an Oura costs between $299 and $549, depending on the style you choose, plus the $5.99 monthly fee to access the app and your data.

The devices are also relatively unobtrusive — they don’t look or feel like “gadgets”. Oura is a simple metal ring, while Whoops is a tiny monitor with no buttons or display screen that can be worn on several areas of the body.

“A lot of these [newer] innovations that started off reserved just for athletes are now trickling down,” said Joe Holder, Nike’s global master trainer and a GQ wellness columnist. “I don’t think some people expected it to proliferate this fast.”

The Modern Wellness Consumer

There is a competitive element to these products’ appeal that reflects the shifting ways in which people measure — and show off — their fitness. It’s long been a common practice to post stats from jogs or workouts on social media, showing off metrics like distance, speed or the amount of calories burned. But now it’s just as common to see people posting their sleep or recovery scores before heading to their run club meet up, Johnson said.

For the past few years, Julius Juul, a wellness enthusiast, ultramarathon runner and co-founder of Danish ready-to-wear brand Heliot Emil, has been working on 444, a members-only wellness education platform which allows users to track qualitative data — such as feelings of anxiety and how motivated a user felt during their day — to complement the insights they receive from wearable fitness tech. Once accepted, users pay $500 for a 5-piece collection of fitness and movement clothing. Juul said the uptake took him off guard. He has so far onboarded 44 users, after opening the platform in late July, and has 2,220 more on the waiting list.

“There’s more of an understanding that it’s not just one thing that makes you fit and healthy,” Juul said. “More than ever before people want to learn about the connection between things like sleep, nutrition and physical exertion and what their means for their holistic wellness. This is where technology comes in.”

Wearables companies are receiving a boost from this wider adoption by the fitness community. Ahmed said Whoop has seen considerable growth over the past two years. The company has expanded into 20 new markets in 2024 and gone from being predominately a US business to an international brand.

The real expansion opportunity, however, is spreading the adoption of the technology among the rest of the general population — including those who don’t play sports or work out.

“I think that in the long run, most human beings are going to be wearing a sensor of some kind on their bodies that tells them everything about their health,” Ahmed said.