Logan Moore 

Retail stocks, along with the broader market, were down Friday morning as fears of a new Covid-19 variant hammered the market amid potentially strong Black Friday sales.

Shares of Dollar Tree (DLTR), which sells the majority of its products -- including toys, home decor, kitchenware, and seasonal goods -- was down nearly 4% to $140.81. Nordstrom (JWN) was down 7% at $21.04. Macy's (M) was off 7.2%. Retailers that struggled to keep up with supply-chain crunches -- as noted in their third-quarter earnings -- including Kohls (KSS) and Gap (GPS) were down 2.1% to $54.09, and 3.4% to $17.25, respectively. Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) were down 3.3% to $37.98.

For the most part though, retail stocks have been gaining amid high demand this year. The SPDR S&P Retail exchange-traded fund (XRT) is up 50.05% this year as of Friday morning, still on pace for its best year since 2009, when it rose 74.8%. The ETF is down 2.8% in Friday trading.

The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Discretionary ETF (RCD) is up nearly 25% this year, a sign that despite the previous Delta variant, shoppers are ready to spend their cash and investors recognize the demand.

Data from Friday morning showed U.S. consumers are expected to spend $12.9 billion in online sales and have already spent $6.9 billion online during Thanksgiving Day, up 1.1% from last year, according to data from Salesforce.

The National Retail Federation estimates 58.1 million people will shop on Small Business Saturday, and 62.8 million will shop online on Cyber Monday. The trade organization projects consumers will spend an average of $997.73, with total spending up as much as 10.5% to $859 billion this season.

U.S. online sales for the first three weeks of November are up 10% year-over-year, $74 billion already spent, as consumers continue to fit in holiday shopping as early as possible over concerns regarding shipping delays and supply chain issues, according to Salesforce.

The Dow was on track for its worst Black Friday on record, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq on pace for their worst Black Friday since 2009.

Write to Logan Moore at logan.moore@barrons.com