pa href=”http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/nIVFcxhQBnpnJUWMaEVRUMS1gO0/a”img src=”http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/nIVFcxhQBnpnJUWMaEVRUMS1gO0/i” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/pLast week the government released retail sales numbers and they showed a 1% jump in retail sales.br /br /Although it surprised many, it came as no surprise to Walmart management. The week prior, they had already reported that their January sales jumped 1% month over month. (That’s a 12% annualized clip.)br /br /You may know that Walmart accounts for about a quarter of the total $1.75 trillion annual top 100 retail market. So it is not insignificant to the whole sector when they post their results and forecasts… which they a href=”http://finance.yahoo.com/news/WalMart-Reports-Financial-prnews-14375699.html”did early Tuesday morning./abr /br /For the three-month period that ended Jan. 31, Walmart reported net income of $3.79 billion, beating analysts’ expectations. Their quarterly sales increased to $108 billion. Their annual sales year over year increased 7.2% to $401.2 billion.br /br /So will Walmart be surprised about continued growth in their 23% take of the retail segment?br /br /”Our performance relative to competitors was exceptionally strong in the fourth quarter,” said Wal-Mart’s new CEO, Mike Duke. “We expect this momentum to continue.”br /br /Given Duke’s remarks, I doubt the management team will be surprised by their continued growth. Why? Because not only do they see continued growth in their business, but like a href=”http://www.philadelphiafed.org/research-and-data/real-time-center/survey-of-professional-forecasters/2009/survq109.cfm”43 Fed economists/a it is highly likely that Walmart top brass sees an overall return to US economic a href=”http://mast-economy.blogspot.com/2009/02/evidence-points-to-recessions-end-by.html”span style=”COLOR: rgb(51,51,255)”growth by summer/span./abr /br /br /Disclosures: No positions.div class=”blogger-post-footer”div/div
No Gloom here. Only Good News.
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a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416560610?ie=UTF8tag=thegooneweco-20linkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=1416560610″The Power of Positive Thinking/a
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a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743243153?ie=UTF8tag=thegooneweco-20linkCode=as2camp=1789creative=390957creativeASIN=0743243153″The Road Less Traveled/a
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Last 5 posts by Eldon Mast

• Good News Wrap - First Week of Sept - September 8th, 2009
• Mr. Roubini, Please Have a Seat Already - April 26th, 2009
• Not All Banks Increased Loan Write-Offs in Q1 - April 24th, 2009
• Seven Banks Have Now Paid Back TARP - April 21st, 2009
• Four More Analysts Call Market Bottom - April 17th, 2009