Walmart Allays Retail Jitters With Best Holiday Quarter In Years

Walmart Inc. finally gave the U.S. retail sector some good news. The company brushed off the industry’s disappointing December sales with its best holiday quarter in at least a decade, soothing concerns about the sector’s outlook for 2019. Comparable sales for Walmart stores in the U.S. — a key performance barometer — rose 4.2 percent in the quarter that included Christmas, beating analysts’ estimates by a full percentage point. “This is a blockbuster quarter for Walmart,” Moody’s analyst Charlie O’Shea said in an interview. The strong fourth-quarter results from the world’s biggest retailer is a welcome change for a consumer sector after a bout of disappointing results. Although investors entered the holidays expecting a surge of spending, some big retailers warned sales weakened in mid-December after retailers began Black Friday promotions earlier than normal. Read more at Bloomberg.