Panic! as 'Fear of Bezos' Causes Trembling in Grocery and Retail Stocks

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos have already wiped out billions in equity value from traditional retail stocks, so perhaps it isn't a surprise that today's deal to acquire Whole Foods (Nasdaq: WFM) caused panic among grocery retailer investors.

The impact was clear immediately following the deal announcement, with massive losses today in shares of:

• Kroger (NYSE: KR), currently down 13%
• Wal-mart (NYSE: WMT), down 5%
• Target (NYSE: TGT), off 9%
• Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) down 7%
• SUPERVALU (NYSE: SVU) down 16%
• Sprouts Farmers Market (NASDAQ: SFM), down 12%
• United Natural Foods (NASDAQ: UNFI) down 15%
• CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), down 4%
• Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA) down 4%
• Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR), down down 4.5%

It remains to be seen if Amazon can repeat in grocery the success it's had taking share from retailers selling books, technology, clothing, sporting goods, etc, etc, etc ...

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