(c) 2009 
Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.Wal-Mart Stores Inc. offset sliding store sales with a tight squeeze on costs, enabling the giant discounter to keep profit for its fiscal second quarter essentially flat with a year earlier.
Wal-Mart said it improved profit margins with better inventory management and cost controls. But the world's largest retailer by revenue said sales at U.S. stores open at least a year fell 1.2%, excluding the effect of lower fuel prices, as consumers continued to hold back on spending. Wal-Mart had predicted its sales would be anywhere from flat to up 3%.
Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., said a 6% reduction in its inventory helped raise gross profit margin.
Wal-Mart posted income of $3.44 billion, or 88 cents a share, for the period ended July 31, compared with $3.45 billion, or 87 cents a share, a year earlier.
Net sales fell 1.4% to $100.08 billion. Excluding the impact of foreign-currency exchange, sales would have increased 2.7%.
International sales fell 5.1% as profit declined 6.2%. Adjusting for currency fluctuations, international profit would have increased 13% to $1.4 billion.
The strongest-performing countries were Mexico and the U.K., although Asda Group Ltd., Wal-Mart's U.K. supermarket business, reported slowing sales growth in its second quarter.
Credit: By Ann Zimmerman
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