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Strategies & Market Trends : The Amateur Traders Corner -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Hua who wrote (8336)	4/12/2001 4:07:37 PM
From: Paul Kern	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19633

Wal-Mart warned ==================================== Thursday April 12, 2:54 pm Eastern Time Wal-Mart Revises 1Q Earnings Outlook By CHUCK BARTELS Associated Press Writer LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- A slowing economy and a cool spring put a chill on March sales at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., causing the retailing giant Thursday to revise downward its first-quarter earnings forecast. The world's largest retailer said it expects earnings to be slightly below the 32 cents per share it had predicted, but more than the 30 cents per share it posted for its first quarter a year ago. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call were also expecting 32 cents per share. Wal-Mart issued its outlook as other retailers were also reporting disappointing March sales. The U.S. Commerce Department reported that retail sales fell by 0.2 percent in March. Kurt Barnard of Barnard's Retail Trend Report in Upper Montclair, N.J., said Wall Street's nosedive coupled with high credit card debt and widespread job cuts have caused even people with secure employment to tighten spending. ``Basically, what we are seeing here is a sharp consumer spending slowdown based on the fact that consumers feel uncertain about their own future,'' he said. Wal-Mart spokesman Tom Williams said the company hopes to expand its customer base during the downturn. ``One of the things we really are focusing on is we may be seeing customers we don't see very often,'' Williams said. ``We want them to have a good experience so they come back more often.'' Wal-Mart shares were down $1.40, or 3 percent, at $48.83 in trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. Wal-Mart said its same-store sales for the first quarter will grow by 3 to 5 percent, based on current sales. For the five weeks ending April 6, Wal-Mart said its companywide sales had increased 3.5 percent, compared to 5.5 percent a year ago. Actual sales for the period were up 11.3 percent. The late spring affected sales across a large portion of the country, Wal-Mart said. ``Spring categories, such as lawn and garden, sporting goods and several apparel areas were impacted by these cool weather patterns and therefore came in below plan for the period as a whole,'' the company said. Barnard said it would be wrong to put too much emphasis on how the weather affected sales, however. ``The weather had something to do with it but to attribute (the March slowdown) to the weather is idle talk.'' Net sales for the five weeks for Wal-Mart totaled $18.77 billion, an increase of 11.3 percent over the $16.868 billion the year prior. Sales for the nine-week period were $33.655 billion, an increase of 11.5 percent over the $30.184 billion a year before. Domestically, Wal-Mart has 1,709 Wal-Mart stores, 939 Supercenters, 476 Sam's Club warehouse stores and 19 Neighborhood Market grocery stores. Internationally, Wal-Mart has 1,081 stores. The Bentonville-based Wal-Mart will release its first-quarter earnings on May 15. On the Net: