Remember how the home furnishings and remodeling business was finally supposed to rebound in a big way this year? Forget about it. The long-anticipated recovery stubbornly refuses to show up on the retail landscape, and new financial results from the home improvement twins—Home Depot and Lowe’s—indicate you shouldn’t hold your breath waiting for it.

Even as Lowe’s clearly outperformed its larger rival this past fiscal quarter, each giant took down its forecast for the remainder of its financial year, now indicating flat-at-best results for their businesses. The rest of the retail picture remains wildly inconsistent. Walmart —the biggest of the big boxes—continues to put up exemplary numbers, while its largest competitor, Target, remains mired in self-inflicted dire straits, its sales fa

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