Reply #20: Wal-Mart to discuss business at US Walmart stores

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WAL_MART_ANALYSTS_MEETING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-10-12-07-32-29

NEW YORK (AP) -- What Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says about how it's reversing a slump in its namesake U.S. business will be at the front of analysts' minds at the company's annual meeting with Wall Street Wednesday.

The discounter also is expected to offer a peek into its winter holiday strategies and a look at plans for capital spending.

The world's largest retailer announced in August that its second-quarter profit rose 5.7 percent, and it raised its outlook for the year based on strong international sales growth and its cost-cutting efforts.

Business has improved steadily at Wal-Mart's Sam's Club warehouse stores, but the company hasn't been able to stop a two-year sales slump at its U.S. Walmart stores, which account for 62 percent of its total revenue. The company says the weak U.S. job market and other economic woes are straining its core low-income shoppers.

Wal-Mart is a key barometer of U.S. consumer spending, which makes up 70 percent of the economy, including such major expenditures as health care. The retailer rings up nearly 10 percent of all nonautomotive retail dollars spent in the U.S. so any details about how its shoppers are buying everything from cereal to clothing will offer clues about where the economy is heading.





***walmart:mad: