Amazon outlook ‘a warning shot for discretionary retailers,’ says Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley analyst Simeon Gutman believes retail sales may have inflected negatively in the last several weeks and that the backdrop "appears to be weakening," calling Amazon’s (AMZN) holiday quarter outlook a "warning shot for discretionary retailers." The analyst, who thinks Target (TGT) has more second half risk than Walmart (WMT), has an Equal Weight rating on Target shares and an Overweight rating on Walmart. He prefers "defensive positioned retailers," such as Walmart, Dollar General (DG) and AutoZone (AZO), Gutman added.