Walmart, a bellwether of consumer confidence, saw its revenue increase as the United States began to roll out a new, wide-ranging tariff program. Nevertheless, profit growth was lower than expected.
On Aug. 21, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant released its second-quarter earnings report. It indicated that the company’s total revenues increased by about 4.8 percent, to $177.4 billion, in the three-month period that ended on July 31. Net sales rose by a similar percentage, to $120.9 billion.
The performance was disappointing to investors and characterized as a miss. Rather than the expected gross profit margin growth of 24.9 percent, the company reported a quarterly gross profit growth of 24.5 percent….