What's Behind Gap's 5% Move Higher Wednesday?

While there wasn't any direct news driving shares of Gap Inc (NYSE: GPS) 5% higher as of 2:40 p.m. EST, such as a strong quarterly report, the share price was benefiting from an overall lift in brick-and-mortar retailer sentiment following Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Much of the optimism fueling retailers such as Gap, and many of its competitors, was from analysts reporting that traffic was better than expected. According to analysts at Wells Fargo, traffic declines on Black Friday were the smallest since 2013, and fewer items were marked down significantly, to boot. Obviously, investors would love to see traffic gains, but at a time when e-commerce is thriving, smaller declines in foot traffic are enough to create optimism with struggling brick-and-mortar retailers. Some went as far as to call Gap the "weekend winner."

Image source: Getty Images.

Source: Fool.com