Will Talbots join the retail upswing?

With retail sales coming in higher than expected for March, will Talbots (TLB) benefit from the upswing when it reports its numbers for the first quarter later today? March retail sales not only came in higher, numbers for February also were revised upward. These numbers suggest the consumer is spending more than economists thought.

Talbots continues to struggle though, and the retailer in February said it was cutting 370 corporate jobs, or 17 percent of that workforce. It also said it would continue to cut hourly store jobs and take other steps as part of its $150 million planned cost cuts. We'll see if this cutting binge helped improve its numbers later today.