As the closely watched earnings season draws to a close, retail stocks have broadly finished the week in negative territory. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) staged a rebound on Friday, tracking the broader market's upward momentum, with gains of nearly 1% by midday trading.

Despite the Friday bounce, the ETF still recorded a weekly loss exceeding 1%, underscoring the pressure felt across the sector during this earnings-heavy period.

Corporate results were the primary driver of the sector's weakness, with Advance Auto Parts (AAP) and Walmart (WMT) emerging as the main drags on the ETF. Both companies have seen their shares plummet approximately 25% and 11%, respectively, so far this week. Should these losses hold through the closing bell, they would mark the steepest weekly declines for Advance Auto Parts since 2023 and for Walmart since 2022.

Partially offsetting these losses, however, were Dillard's (DDS) and the pet-focused e-commerce platform Chewy (CHWY), both of which posted gains of more than 8% on the week, helping to limit the overall decline in the retail ETF.