Nike (NYSE: NKE) shareholders are hoping for an early Christmas present this year. The sports apparel giant posts its quarterly results after the market closes on Thursday, Dec. 21, right in the thick of the holiday shopping crush. And while investors are growing more pessimistic about rival Under Armour's (NYSE: UA) (NYSE: UAA) business, they have made the opposite judgment on Nike recently.
After all, there are some good reasons to expect positive news from Nike in a few days.
For starters, Nike might reveal stronger demand trends in the U.S. market, its single biggest geography. That segment has been struggling for over a year as retailers battled over a shrinking pool of customer traffic. But through that downturn, Nike's retailing network has done a good job of clearing out excess inventory so that stores entered the holiday season primed for more profitable sales even at a slower growth pace.
Source: Fool.com