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Filed under: Earnings reports, Wal-Mart (WMT), Technical Analysis, Stocks to Buy

Zale Corporation (NYSE: ZLC) is a specialty retailer of fine jewelry, operating over 2,100 retail locations throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Company brands include Zales Jewelers, Zales Outlet, Gordon's Jewelers, Peoples Jewellers, Mappins Jewellers and Piercing Pagoda. The firm also operates Zales and Gordon's websites. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) is a major competitor.

The firm surprised investors late last month, when it reported a Q4 loss of 48 cents and revenues of $456.2 million. Analysts had

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In the 1920s, Morris (M.B.) and William Zale had a vision: to provide customers with quality merchandise at the lowest possible price. This vision became a reality when the first Zales Jewelers store opened in Wichita Falls, Texas, on March 29, 1924.

With a credit plan of "a penny down and a dollar a week," the Zale brothers launched a marketing strategy considered to be revolutionary at the time, and thus made jewelry and other merchandise affordable to the average working American. Fri

Today I would like to call attention to specialty retail jeweler,ZALE Corp, (NYSE:ZLC) and the difficult challengesit must overcome to successfully outperform the market. After a briefanalysis, I have come to the conclusion that it will face many uphillchallenges in the coming year.<!--more--> A weakening economy coupled with aninflationary environment will hamper efforts to revitalize the retailjewelry market, especially where specialty brick and mortar retailersalready face stiff competition from all fronts including: boomingInternet sales from as Blue Nile (NASDAQ: NILE) and Ebay (NASDAQ