Budgets/Spending/Market Size

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores reported Tuesday that profit for the quarter ended Oct. 31 rose 9.3% to $3.44 billion, compared with a profit of $3.15 billion in the year-ago quarter.

However, same-store sales in the United States declined as Wal-Mart’s shoppers remain under pressure in a weak economy. Same-store sales in the United States fell 1.3%, the sixth consecutive quarterly decline at the world’s largest retailer.

Net sales rose 2.6% to $101.2 billion.
 

Atlanta -- A report released Monday by payment solutions provider First Data Corp. found that year-over-year October dollar volume growth of activations of closed-loop prepaid cards was 2.7%, down from 8.9% year-over-year growth in September.

The First Data SpendTrend Closed-Loop Prepaid Cards analysis tracks U.S. same-merchant activations, redemptions and reloads of merchant-branded prepaid cards, including spending, gift, incentive and promotional cards.

Mooresville, N.C. -- Lowe’s Cos. reported Monday that profit for the quarter ended Oct. 29 rose 17% to $404 million, compared with net income of $344 million in the year-ago period.

The second-largest U.S. home-improvement retailer cited shrinking labor expense for the improvement.

Revenue rose 1.9% to $11.59 billion in the third quarter. Wall Street expected sales of $11.75 billion. Same-store sales edged up 0.2%.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Monday by the Commerce Department said that retail sales beat expectations for October, climbing 1.2% and representing the biggest gain since March.

The 1.2% rise in October purchases followed a 0.7% gain in September, which also was larger than estimated.