Before the turkey comes out of the oven and the Black Friday doorbusters are set, some of the U.S.’ biggest retailers will turn in their third-quarter earnings reports.

Results due from mass merchants Walmart Inc. and Target Corp., specialty chains Gap Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch & Co. and more, will be the last snapshot of the consumer economy headed into retail’s make-or-break season.

Already some of the industry’s biggest brands have released results for what is traditionally retail’s fiscal third quarter.

So far it’s Coach parent Tapestry Inc. (with sales up 13.1 percent) and Ralph Lauren Inc. (up 16.5 percent) that really shined in the most recent quarter.

That makes sense both because those companies are on multiyear journeys to sharpen their brand images and because they

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