Department stores across US are, more-or-less, posed to post earnings over the coming week as compared to the figures they posted about a year ago, when the financial and retail meltdown was at its peak.

And while that makes things easy for them, the hard part is the competition for market share.

Retailers like JC Penny and Macy's, which are lagging behind, in addition to Saks Inc., are now busy trying to prove that they can catch up with more successful rivals like Nordstrom Inc. and Kohl's Corp., which currently hold more market share.

And as far as these early leaders go, the difficult part for them is to try and prove that they can continue the winning streak all throughout 2010.

"We're going to see earnings growth for almost every department store and we saw good sales over the holidays. The flipside to all that bad news last year was the market share opportunity", said Walter Stackow, a Senior Analyst with Manning & Napier in Fairport, New York. The firm currently manages about $25 Billion and holds Kohl's and Nordstrom shares.

"Macy's is still very cheap, and Kohl's, Nordstrom and Penney are all relatively inexpensive considering where earnings can recover to in the next two years", said Liz Dunn, an analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners.