Just before the close, purveyor of hip emo clothing and street-wear Hot Topic (HOTT: sentiment, chart, options) released its same-store sales performance for April. For the month, HOTT said that same-store sales fell 2.5%, compared with a decline of 9.1% last year. Analysts were looking for a drop of 0.4%. Total April sales were up $44.8 million, up 1.4%. For the first quarter, HOTT said that same-store sales dropped 2.3% company-wide, while total sales were up 1.1%.

After spending most of today's session hovering near a loss of 1.2%, the stock rallied nearly 3% in the final 5 minutes of today's trading following the report. When the dust settled, HOTT added 1.86% to close just shy of the $5 mark. Sentiment is bearish on the shares, as the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.98 ranks above 64% of all those taken during the past year, while 8% of its float is sold short. Meanwhile, Zacks.com reports that 8 of the 10 analysts following the shares rate them a "hold" or worse.

However, this negativity seems warranted, as the stock is down more than 16% on a year-to-date basis. What's more, during the past 52 weeks, HOTT is off more than 54%.