NEW YORK — The stock market fell more than 300 points today, with furniture industry stocks rising amid the turmoil. Investor fears about the Fed's further interest rate hike increased after better-than-expected employment data, and stock prices fell. June data showed private-sector job creation increased by 497,000, more than double the Dow Jones consensus forecast.
Unlike other recent market crashes that left the furniture sector unscathed, today's selloff appears to have sent U.S. furniture stocks down at about the same rate as the market as a whole. At the time of writing, Arhaus's stock, one of the fastest growing retailers in today's furniture market in 2022, has fallen 2.28% to his $10.06, about 1.3% of the market average. % was greatly exceeded.
Other furniture stocks fell as well, with Bassett down 0.74% to $16 a share, Cons down 0.79% to $3.78, Ethan Allen down 1.55% to $28 and Havarti down 1.82%. The stock fell to $29.17, while La-z-Boy shares fell 1.77% to $27.15. Williams-Sonoma fell 3.05% to $123.49 and RH fell 3.22% to $321.77. It's worth noting that the three largest declines came from luxury retailers Sonoma, RH and Arhaus. The rate of decline for each is almost double that of the market as a whole.
At the other end of the spectrum Culp Inc. and Flexsteel appear to have escaped the turmoil with both stocks reporting gains on the day with a 0.79% increase for Flexsteel and a 2.42% gain for Culp. In past instances of stock market turmoil it’s been common for furniture stocks to rebound quickly as the stock market stabilizes.
This story will be updated as events warrant.
