>>Usually when a stock trades down before earnings you can anticipate a negative report
If anything is proven by this it's that THIS management team must not leak numbers, keeping the playing field nice and even. Congrats to WSM on a great quarter!
I have to tell you, information filters down in EVERY company. In this case I think we experienced "market jitters" and this is occurring prior to earnings to all stocks, just at different levels. Hope smart investors added to their positions.
I don't think I'd say "usually." There's been some nice earnings surprises in the retail sector lately. I see WSM as a good, long-term investment as they're one of the strongest retailers out there right now.