J.C. Penney Earns Short-Term Victory, but Things Are Still Tough

Stock investors attempting to play a J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) comeback would really be betting against the odds. There is some enthusiasm on the street right now after the retailer pulled together some better-than-expected third-quarter results last week. But I'm not sure a pleasant surprise on some financial metrics really matters if your revenue still declines by 8.5% year over year.

The stock price has been around the $1 mark for a while now. At that level, J.C. Penney has flirted with being delisted from the NYSE. Its "better"-than-expected third-quarter losses have given shares enough momentum to seemingly move away from that danger for the moment, but the company's still in trouble.

Source Fool.com