Walmart Q4 comp sales (ex. fuel): Walmart US +4.6% / Sam’s +4.0% / Walmart Int’l (net sales growth) +7.5% “Global eCommerce sales grew 24%…global advertising business up 37%…membership fee revenue grew 15.1% globally…gross margin rate up 13 bps, led by Walmart US.” Press release

 

…Walmart reports strong holiday growth, but earnings outlook falls short of estimates at CNBC. “(CFO) Rainey also said consumer price increases from inflation and President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes should ease in the coming months. Food inflation at Walmart in the fourth quarter was just above 1%, while it was slightly higher for general merchandise, he said…’I think we have, largely as a retail industry, absorbed or seen the brunt of the impact from tariffs’.” Read more

 

…Walmart delivers another quarter of impressive sales but offers a muted outlook at AP. “(Walmart) expects sales (for current quarter) to increase anywhere from 3.5% to 4.5% and earnings per share to be in the range of 63 cents to 65 cents. For the year, it expects sales to reach $706.4 billion and earnings per share to be $2.64. That is a little cooler than Wall Street had been projecting.” Read more

 

Amazon Dethrones Walmart as World’s Biggest Company by Sales at Bloomberg. “Walmart, which had been the largest company by revenue for more than a decade, on Thursday reported sales of $713.2 billion for the 12 months ending Jan. 31. Amazon, which operates on a fiscal year ending in December, earlier this month reported 2025 sales of $717 billion.” Bloomberg subs.

 

Wayfair Q4 Total Net Revenue +6.9% Press release

 

Etsy, Inc Q4 GMS +2.4% Press release

 

McCann Wins Kroger’s US Creative Business at Adweek. “The Kroger Company‘s total ad spend is roughly $391 million, according to COMvergence…Kroger’s move from DDB to McCann keeps the agency underneath the Omnicom umbrella…” Read more

 

Etsy sells secondhand clothing marketplace Depop to eBay for $1.2B at TechCrunch. “The deal comes nearly five years after Etsy acquired Depop for $1.62 billion…” Read more

 

dunnhumby: Walmart’s Grocery Penetration Hits Record 72% “…mass-channel retailers have equaled traditional supermarkets at 79% penetration for the first time…U.S. consumers perceive food inflation to be 19.6%, more than eight times the actual rate of 2.4% in December 2025.” Press release

 

DoorDash Q4 Total Orders increased 32% year-over-year Press release

 

University of Texas at Austin adds Shein to list of banned Chinese companies Fox Business

 

Over 65? Congratulations, You Own the Economy at WSJ. “…people 70 and over controlled roughly 39% of all equities and mutual funds owned by households, compared with 22% in 2007, according to Federal Reserve data. Their share of net worth—assets minus debts—was 32%, up from 20% two decades earlier.” WSJ subs.