Walmart collected about $2.9 billion in tariff refunds and spent it on roughly 11,000 rollbacks in Walmart US. Transactions grew and operating income rose 28.8%. The comp still slowed to 2.6% excluding fuel, the weakest quarter since 2020, with the softness concentrated in lower-income households. Walmart raised full-year guidance on the assumption that the second half improves on the back of that price investment, which puts a refund that will not repeat into the base of next year's math.

Lowe's earned $4.27 a share on $2 billion more revenue than last year, when it also earned $4.27. Comparable sales rose two tenths of one percent. Almost all of the revenue growth was acquired, from a building products distributor and an interior finishes installer that sell into new residential construction, and Lowe's removed the top of its full-year outlook four separate times on the call. Online grew 15.7%. The release blames persistent do-it-yourself macro pressure for the rest, which is a long way of saying the Saturday deck lumber customer has not come back.

Target's traffic did come back. Comps grew 3.8% with 3.6 points from traffic, and apparel and accessories grew $4 million on a $4 billion base.

Ipsy is launching a marketing services arm and will no longer say what its revenue is. Six years ago it published 4.3 million subscribers and a billion dollars.

Plus the Investor Minute: Ferrero buys Purely Elizabeth, Amazon buys DuckDB Labs but not DuckDB, Mubadala takes majority control of Arrive Logistics, Blank Street raises $105 million, Lavanta raises $22 million.

The Watson Weekly is sponsored by Avalara. Tax compliance gets harder with every new channel, state, product and market. See what Avalara Agentic Tax and Compliance does about it at avalara.watsonweekly.com

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