Nike Impresses as Gross Margins Improve By Gary Dvorchak About this article: For Dvorchak's preview heading into the Nike conference call, please click here. Forget "V-shaped" recoveries, Nike management is counting on a "swoosh-shaped" recovery and is trying to deliver the numbers to prove it. Nike printed impressive fiscal first-quarter numbers, with earnings of $1.04 a share solidly ahead of Wall Street's estimate of 97 cents. Revenue was down nearly 12% year over year and slightly missed consensus at $4.8 billion, but investors don't seem to care. The stock rose almost 5% in after-hours trading Tuesday. Of course, posting a strong improvement in gross margins relative to expectations and meaningful decline in inventory of 7% always helps. A benign currency environment helped gross margins, as did progress in reducing input costs. Nike noted it is moving to multiple currency cost of goods, so overall foreign exchange effects should become more muted naturally over time. Average selling prices are holding... Or, call us at 1-866-321-TSCM (8726) Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. ET. Outside the U.S. and in Canada, call 1-212-321-5200. More Stories From RealMoney Durable Goods Up Move Down the Tech Food Chain Jobless Claims Still High Bulls' Tenacity Is the Big Question Mark Should You Buy It? Pharmaceutical Product Development Bad News Trumps All Support for Banks Holds, For Now Bummer, Yields Are on the Rise Money on the Line Makes a Big Difference Structured Products: Unsafe at Any Price MORE STORIES FROM REALMONEY

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