Walmart’s second-quarter earnings beat expectations, the company reported Thursday. The US retail giant raised its full-year guidance as it beat second-quarter sales and profit estimates, fueled by strong consumer demand for low-priced groceries and health and wellness products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Strong earnings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The earnings report from the world’s largest retailer certainly pleasantly surprised. The strong display bodes well for back-to-school and seasonal purchases. Sales at Walmart’s US stores rose 6.4%, excluding fuel, during the second quarter, beating estimates for a 4.4% increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Average transactions and the number of items shoppers put in their carts also increased, the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consumers “endure”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Shoppers continue to be “picky and discerning” and focus on buying food and health and wellness products. Shoppers responded strongly to seasonal products such as the holidays and the back-to-school season, indicating that the consumer is showing a willingness to spend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those signs contributed to Walmart’s decision to raise its forecast to between 4% and 4.5% from 3.5% previously. US consumers have shown resilience despite rising interest rates and higher prices this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. retail sales rose more than expected in July as Americans spent more online and dined out more. Rising wages and consumer confidence are leading U.S. households to continue spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, American consumers are seeing their purchasing power diminish next year due to rising energy costs and student loan payments due in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Walmart’s second-quarter earnings beat expectations, the company reported Thursday. The US retail giant raised its full-year guidance as it beat second-quarter sales and profit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[620,946],"tags":[497,4298,4614],"class_list":["post-14940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-companies","tag-cost-of-living","tag-retail-stores","tag-walmart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14942,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14940\/revisions\/14942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}