"When in Doubt, Wal Mart" from Barron's online

While other retailers are suffering from dismal sales figures, Wal Mart has remained to stay ahead of the curve. Bouncing back from a disappointing December sales report, Wal Mart has achieved a record 2.1% increase in same-store sales growth for January. Despite fairly low sales expectations, theses days not losing is winning in the retail game.

However, in the wake of unpredictable consumer spending, Wal Mart has opted to abandon monthy sales forcasts and only use quarterly updates. This move in guidence has raised some conern on Wall Street, but Wal Mart insists the move is a way to get consistant with long-term growth forcasts. The concern arises when a strong retailer like Wal Mart decides basically to release less information less frequently to investors and the public. In this current economic climate, Wall Street wants nothing to do with uncertainty in information and has become weary of moves like this.

The article also reports on Target's performance, and although similar to Wal Mart is expected to be one of the losers in the retailing sector. This is of particular interest to me since I have stock in Wal Mart but am a loyal customer at Target. Analysts warn that earnings won't meet prejected quarterly sales, some say because Taregt can't convince shoppers that their model is actually similar to Wal Mart, and low prices exisit in both retailers. This is a testiment to Wal Mart's strong business model and has proved to be a company that evolves with the changing market environment.