"The U.S. retail could lose one out of every 10 stores"

Bleak news in this Reuters report.

Growth in consumer spending over the next several years will be about 1 to 1 1/2 percentage points less than the 3.5 percent clip during the decade ending 2007, it said.

That slowdown could lead to a slow and long recovery, and change the outlook for capital markets in the years to come, especially retail and other consumer-oriented securities.

Investors do not appreciate yet how long the downturn in the U.S. retail industry may last, said Shawn Kravetz, president of Boston-based hedge fund Esplanade Capital LLC.

"We don't think that people have fully factored in this general level of malignancy going on for a year, 18 months, maybe two years," he said at the summit.

The consumer recession will be so "deep and brutal" the U.S. retail industry could lose one out of every 10 stores in coming years, Kravetz said.