The Sears bought some breathing room through moves to raise more than $1.5 billion in recent weeks, but investors are growing increasingly doubtful that the struggling retailer will ever get back on track, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The cost of insuring the retailer’s bonds hit new highs and its stock price continues to tumble falling 5 percent on Monday to close at $6.52, an all-time low, signaling fresh concerns about the retailer’s future. Sparking the latest bout of investor anxiety were downgrades of Sears’s debt last month by Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service that were prompted by the retailer’s dismal holiday sales and continued losses. Sears has been selling assets to fund losses in its retail business and investors worry that this strategy isn’t limitless. Between 2012 and 2016 the company raised $12 billion from divestitures, according to Fitch, largely through the sale of real estate but also by spinning off businesses such as Lands’ End, Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores Inc. and Sears Canada Inc.
