By William Spain, MarketWatch CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Retail stocks were on the rise Thursday as the sector's main indicator climbed about 2% on the back of some raised profit expectations - even in the face of nearly across-the-board sales declines in July. The S&P Retail Index (RLX 357.80, +2.08, +0.59%) gained almost 6 points to 361.31 in early action Shares of Gap Inc. (GPS 17.83, +1.06, +6.29%) rose 6% to $17.76 after the company reported its same-store sales -- those at outlets open at least a year -- fell 8% while total sales for July were down 7% to $924 million. But the company also said that it expects earnings per share for the second quarter of fiscal 2009 to be 30 cents to 32 cents, ahead of the 28-cent average estimate of analyst polled by Thomson Reuters. Nordstrom Inc. (JWN 28.19, +0.23, +0.82%) rose 4% to $28.99 after it said that same-store sales fell 6.9% last month, a drop not as bad as the 11.1% forecast by Wall Street. Total sales for the four-week period ending Aug. 1 were down 4.1% to $806 million. At Target (TGT 41.96, +0.15, +0.36%) , same-store sales fell by 6.5%, which the company said was in line with its expectations although analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had been expecting a 5.8% decline. Total sales for the period dipped 3.2% to $4.4 billion. Shares of Target were up 1.5% at $42.44. J. C. Penney's (JCP 31.13, +0.30, +0.97%) same-store sales plunged 12.3% but the department store chain said it now expects to report a second-quarter loss of just a penny a share, vs. an earlier view for a loss of 8 cents to 12 cents a share. Shares were up about 3% to $31.81. Shares of Costco (COST 48.68, -0.38, -0.78%) were flat at $48.95 after a July same-store sales slump of 7%, including an 8% drop in the U.S. and a 5% fall overseas. Total sales fell 5% to $5.41 billion. Excluding gas deflation, U.S. comparable sales fell 2%. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a 6.7% drop in same-store sales and a 1.9% fall excluding gasoline.

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