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Wal-Mart Misses Revenue, Guides Below Expectations: Weather Among Factors Blamed
Remember when several months ago Wal-Mart leaked just how weak the economy was and that sales had been a "total disaster" (a piece of truthiness that promptly led to the termination of the leak source)? Guess what: they were not lying. Moments ago WMT reported Q1 results, which at the easily fudged bottom line were just in line with expectations, ot $1.14 driven by $2.2 billion in stock repurchases (30 million shares). However, it was sales, as warned, that came in well weaker than expected, posting at $114.2 billion on expectations of $116.1 - just as the guy warned. It gets worse:
- Q2 EPS expected in the range $1.22-$1.27, on expectations of $1.29
- Q1 comps ex-fuel -1.2% vs Exp. 0.4%
- Comps in Canada and Japan declined
- Sam's Club implements first fee increase since 2006: raises membership fee to $45 nationwide
- During the 13-week period, the Walmart U.S. comp was negatively impacted by a delay in tax refund checks, challenging weather conditions, less grocery inflation than expected and the payroll tax increase. Comp traffic was down 1.8 percent, while average ticket increased 0.4 percent.
From the CFO, Charles Holley: "Although we believe our company will leverage expenses for the year, the second quarter will be challenging, given expense pressures in International and our corporate area. Expense leverage may not be delivered evenly across the quarters, but we believe that by executing our plans, we will continue to reduce expenses and improve productivity."
And with this bad news to close the retail reporting season, we now fully expect the S&P to explode higher out of the gates on zero volume, with Kevin Henry's blessing of course, to such manipulated highs that even Joe Sixpack can do nothing but laugh.
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Fundamentals are so 1900s.
Good News. Dow 36000.
When will this torrent of great news stop ?!?
The economy is in its early stages of recovery for 5 years. Stock market is booming. Unemployment is down.
Can it get any better ?
Guess what: they were not lying.
Well at least someone isn't lying these days.
I fucking hate Walmart.
Just thought I would throw that out there.
I hate unions.
so does Walmart
Yeah those unions sure screwed Walmart over. Damn near everyone I know wants a job at Walmart for the lousy pay and lousy working conditions. I feel quite certain that if Walmart were allowed to engage in more employee abuse profits would be higher.
So the poor on food stamps can no longer afford to shop at WM? What's next?
Looting your house.
Molon Labe!
I concur, as for me i will continue to shop locally and support the small business in my community and continue to boycott those with the intention of destroying the fair economic system
Yep he wasn't lying, unfortunately we're talking about the guy who lost his job for telling the truth. The rest of them are still lying.
Fundamentals will soon be so late 1800s.
It's early 1600s out there - Tulip Mania style.
S&P 500 Forward P/E (which obviously will increase, as warnings materialize) is currently at 19. Median is 14.5, mean 15.5. But hey, "REMEMBER THE S&P IS BARGAIN TERRITORY AND CAN ONLY GO UP!!eleventyone11! YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO MISS THIS - BUY NOW OR BE PRICED OUT FOREVER!!1" --Steve Liesman
http://www.multpl.com/
Corporate expenses are up. Get those guys staying in hostels on road trips.
And eating at food banks. Come on guys, you can trim those expenses.
The QI Elves @qikipedia
"During the 17th century 'tulip mania', single Dutch tulip bulbs sold for 10 times the annual salary of skilled workers."
TAHT'S BECAUSE MOTHERFUCKING WALMART BROUGHT THE INTERNET TAX BILL...........................
This new normal thing is something I could get used to. I already pumped all my money into stocks and am waiting for the ship to sail with high tides.
So they were waiting for people to get tax refunds who could not afford their junk food until then? Wow, says a lot....
Dude, EBTs. Nobody pays for junk food anymore.
All Walmart has to do is start selling those cheap Chinese condoms, problem solved.
It is a good fit with their purchasing policy.
Wait for it.
Remember when several months ago, Walmart leaked that its sales were "a disaster"...and yet the stock shot up, ultimately rising nearly 17% in the following weeks?
Thank you, Ben Bernanke, for this wasteland.
The disaster was better than 'expected'
Didn't they fire the guy who talked about horrible results already? I thought that would of fixed everything.
One would think.
I mean, it usually does doesn't it?
Somebody lower in the management structure got his work (productivity numbers improve).
Somebody higher in the management struture got his pay (average wage numbers improve).
win Win.
isnt it ironic how mmm, ibm, cat, all miss earnings badly and market makes it seem like it means nothing ( all 3 of those are big indicators of economy), but when csco beats yesterday all these assholes r yapping how it shows an improved economy.
now wmt today missing, it means nothing. as long as amzn beats, that is all that counts
Isn't it funny that Americans think the success of these multinationals has anything to do with their economic recovery?
How many of these corps have even 30% of their workforce in the US?
Exactly.
People tout iDevices as status symbols since they were made by slave labor. Or they have no fucking idea the conditions in which the Foxconn employees work. I'll go with the latter.
What "challenging weather conditons"!!?? We're having the lowest tornado activity in ages now!
My favourite is "less grocery inflation than expected".
People literally need guns to their heads, forcing them to spend every little bit of their paycheques.
Anything but, and it just isn't a free market.
I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk about that point. It should have been placed in bold text. Let that one sink in people. Inflation drives good corporate numbers... It also drives GDP. Ain't credit money grand?
aaand,
that NewSpeak is pervasive,
in the NweSpeak medium.
It's all about the subconscious message; inflation good: economy bigger ...
Wasn't some figure's miss blamed on too good weather conditions recently?
you know, Challenging.....like there was weather EVERY day.....so it was a challenge.
That's the problem. Many corporations need bad weather for big profits.
For example: Walmart sells shitloads of Pop Tarts when major storms are forecast.
I once worked for a major supplier of hammers and nails. The execs would have an extra spring in their step if a Level 5 hurricane was bearing down on the US.
"What "challenging weather conditons"!!?? We're having the lowest tornado activity in ages now!"
Coldest midwest spring temps in history...
Bullish.
OT: There's a new song being heard around the White House, sung to the tune of the Ray Price classic, "Release Me" by Barack Obama
Please, Impeach me, let me go
I can't stand Michelle anymore
To live a lie would be a sin
Impeach me, so I can be Kenyan.
I have found a new dear
I love to take it in the rear
Congress must shove it up my ass
Impeach me, darlings, do it fast
Oh, please, impeach me, let me go
I just can't lie good anymore
My presidency is such a sin
Impeach me, and let Joe Biden in.
Meanwhile, Pesident Dimon giving gold the finger. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Wg6k9cWhM
For anyone upset about the move down again in PM's today I give you this.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/09/deborah-burns-fart-in-face-knife-fight_n_3244946.html?ir=Weird+News
It just warms one's heart to know that all these social programs are working so well, i.e. EBT, etc. Deborah Burns is a shining example of the future of Amerika.
Proof that no matter matter the economy life will continue as usual.
Things are so bright, people are shopping at Target instead of Walmart. Bullish.
In my area the shelves are well stocked at Target. The ailses are a tad empty though which makes the wait at the checkout counter shorter.
Cashiers standing around begging you to use their empty lanes near me. Wonder if its cuz they are bored or scared of losing their jobs.....
Oh I get it!! It's because all those WalMart shoppers are putting their hard earned money into the booming stock market!
Yeah, That's the ticket!
Time to start tweeting I-told-you-so's from the Wal-Mart E-mail Guy.
(h/t fonzannoon)
you mean over paid bankers aren't shopping at Walmart?
at least the bernank was able to help those poor, poor, wal mart insiders get the most for their stock. if only more food inflation would kick in that would really help too.
whole reality is a fucken disaster
I can't remember any real bad weather stretches this year ...... Are they kidding !!!!!
Don't worry. Good weather will hurt them too. Who wants to be inside W M when it is nice outside..?? Oh, and 'average' weather crimps them as no one is shopping to prepare for good weather or bad weather..?
I guess that covers it...
Until I can buy discounted Chinese stocks at Wal-Mart, I have no interest in the company.
Walmart's problems are all related to their lack of ammo and their willingness to suckle from the gov teat and pull down all firearms after SH. Anyone else that tells you other than that is full of shit.
Plus, when the SHTF, the barricades against wholesale and rampant looting will hurt sales a tad...!!
I guess Im full of shit. Gun owner who has yet to buy a firearm from Walmart!
wmt may sell off a bit today, but with bernanke printing, should be at 90 in 3 weeks or so.
im getting scared of whats going to happen eventually
I'd make a fantastic CEO 'cause I knows all about good businessing. I'd just show up on CNBC and announce my craptastic earnings to Cramer - "It's transitory. Recovery is right around the corner. Buy today, because our stock price will undoubtedly be going up...every Tuesday."
Wholefoods guidance beats. Walmart guidance misses. What group is getting shafted during the Great Reflation? Answer: not the top 11%.
Theft levels only go one way at WalMart. Care to guess which way they will go?
Well written piece here on market crash.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1437121-the-bernanke-agenda-it-isn-t-what-you-think-it-is?source=email_portfolio&ifp=0
It was an interesting read, but I can't imagine in my wildest dreams that central bankers will ever, EVER go back to gold - they would let the world burn first.
Agreed. Almost makes to much sense.
He has some pretty strange premises. First he assumes the Fed must have some logical reason for continuing QE when it's plainly not working. He conjectures that this means they have some secret master plan, but Occam's razor indicates Bernanke's QE-infinity is just like the guy who loses his car keys in a parking lot at midnight, and spends hours searching under every lamppost multiple times because he can't see anywhere else.
And then he says that "deflation is always the worst outcome" which is ridiculous. The US had deflation not only during the GD, but also during the late 1800s, a period of enormous economic growth.
Pushing Keynes' idea of a global "non-sovereign" currency with some UN-ish bureaucracy controlling it is another mistake. How would the independence of this bureaucracy from sovereign governments be enforced? And if it were possible to do so, wouldn't this currency bureaucracy in effect become a sovereign? The UN manages to keep its independence because it's toothless against powerful governments. Not so with this new currency union.
speaking of Walmart
Goodwill is a good place to work
Seventeen Goodwill entities reported executive compensation in excess of $1 million per year with 30 CEOs receiving more than $293,000 per year
http://watchdog.org/83209/policies-tax-dollars-enrich-goodwill-execs/
of course if you have a disability Goodwill may hire you but don't expect to get the mimium wage - they have a special deal that lets them pay below minimum
Likely the best option is to head to North Carolina
But Goodwill is the feel good green energy of retail, so that's OK.
Just spreading the good willl around. Nothing wrong with that.
/sarc
A major travesty of injustice....we huge majority of the SPX-500 firms have vastly underfunded pension, healthcare programs.....real IOU's owed to employees, one would thing that with so called record profits, they would, or be forced to fund these programs....BUT-NO....many still defer payments to bolster earnings they rush to buy back stock to bolster EPS, they undertake more cheap debt to buy back shares, they continue to pay CEO's and upper management insane wages/benefit packages with massive bonuses and they enrich share-holders (mostly insiders) with increased dividends, and special dividends....And these same lecherous assholes were shouting about class-warfare when the 99-percenters were in an uproar!
They have nice fans.
And guess what happened to the Dow futures?
Right, they went up.
Walmart sales and profits are in the tank - ahhh, more bullish news!!!
"However, it was sales, as warned, that came in well weaker than expected, posting at $114.2 billion on expectations of $116.1 - just as the guy warned."
Just wanted to point out that is less than 2% lower than expectations. Not good, but hardly a disaster.
Depending on your profit margins a 2% drop in sales can be disastrous. I'd imagine WM doesn't have very high margins.
Fair enough.
According to info from my brokerage (quick and dirty), margins are actually higher than I would have thought:
Gross Margin (TTM) 24.87%
Operating Margin (TTM) 5.93%
Pretax Margin (TTM) 5.49%
Net Profit Margin (TTM) 3.78%
(As of 1/31/13)
"... delay in tax refund checks ..."
Well that's my problem right there.
It's government cypression I tell you.
And I thought we needed a Wal-Mart on every street corner on the planet.
Was I mistaken? Can human beings survive without Wal-Mart?
reduce expenses and improve productivity...
That means YOU Wal-Mart workers, which means US Taxpayers in the U.$. will pick up the tab for an increase in social safety net use by Wal-Mart Workers.
Fuck You Wal-Mart.
Weather... so the Waltons got into farming? But seriously, It reminds me on the 1980s in the Soviet Union when there were bad harvests year after year and the Politburo blamed it always on bad weather.