It could be a red hot holiday season for retail

Ahead of Black Friday and the holiday shopping season, some retailers are looking rosy.

Michael Kors (KORS), Dicks Sporting Goods (DKS), TJ Maxx (TJX), Saks (SKS) all reported their latest quarterly results Tuesday. Shares of each moved higher. Home Depot (HD), which isn't as much of a Black Friday beneficiary, also posted strong results and cited the ongoing housing recovery. Shares of Home Depot and Dicks Sporting Goods each jumped more than 4%.

Investors appear generally pleased with consumers' shopping habits and are optimistic going into the holiday shopping season. Many on StockTwits are too.

retail_guru  US retail Super Tuesday Qs = mostly above-plan sales in sign of consumer health; Retail managing stock & expenses well $KORS $DKS $HD $TJX

The other day I had $HD as an $AAPL-like parabolic stock, vulnerable b/c of its slowing revs. Not with these numbers. #eatingcrow

TJAnderson: $HD making all time highs off chatter on the conference call...said they didn't factor numbers from Sandy into guidance !!!

Hurricane Sandy might continue helping Home Depot, but companies like Dicks Sporting Goods had even more surprising reasons for a sales pickup: gun sales.

firstadopter: $DKS call: firearms sales very strong (sigh) "spiked since the election"

Overall, it appears that the luxury retailers, such as Saks, are giving traders the most reason to pause right now.

BrianSozzi: Man, pretty weak when you sell really really expensive stuff and only have an operating margin of 4.6% $SKS

retail_guru: Web business helping both Neiman & Nordy gain substantial share vs Saks; $SKS, as usual, first to use #Sandy excuse to lower the Q4 bar