Home Depot

New York -- Cool weather affected sales at Lowe's for the first quarter ended May 3. 

Lowe’s saw net earnings of $540 million for the quarter, a 2.5% increase over the same period a year ago. Sales for the quarter decreased 0.5% to $13.1 billion from $13.2 billion in the year-ago quarter, while comparable-store sales decreased 0.7%. 

The world’s second largest home improvement retailer reported its results a day after rival Home Depot announced first-quarter sales of $19.1 billion, up 7.4%.

Atlanta – The Home Depot reported sales of $19.1 billion during first quarter fiscal 2013, a 7% increase from $17.8 billion in the same quarter of 2012. Home Depot credited $574 million of this $1.3 billion increase to the addition of an extra week to the first quarter of this year. Net earnings rose 20%, from $1 billion to $1.2 billion.

San Francisco – Pinterest, the social sharing network that many retailers use to promote products, is allowing users to share more information with their pins. Pins may now include data such as pricing, availability and where to buy products, recipe information and detailed information about movies.

So far, retailers including Home Depot, Anthropologie, eBay, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Wal-Mart are partnering with Pinterest to make more product information available on pins originating from their e-commerce sites.

One hundred and forty one billion dollars. That's the estimated brand value of Walmart, according to Interbrand's "Best Global Brands" report. The annual study ranks the 50 most valuable U.S. retail brands, along with the top store brands in countries around the world.

New York -- Investment firm Starboard Value, Office Depot’s largest stockholder with a 14.8% stake, revealed Monday it has delivered a letter to the office supply retailer’s board of directors, expressing “strong disappointment at the board's failure to work constructively with Starboard to reconstitute the board.”

In March, Starboard nominated six candidates, including former Home Depot chief Robert Nardelli – to Office Depot’s board in an effort to strengthen the company’s direction.

Chicago -- Information Resources (IRI), the exclusive provider of Costco point-of-sale and inventory information to the manufacturer community, and Costco Wholesale announced several enhancements to their Costco Collaborative Retail Exchange (CRX) program, a single, global solution for category, POS and supply chain tracking at Costco, and the launch of Costco CRX Mexico.

Chicago -- True Value Hardware said Tuesday that its president and CEO Lyle Heidemann will retire from the company after eight years at the helm, effective May 31.

The hardware cooperative has named John Hartmann to succeed Heidemann as president and CEO. Hartmann previously served as CEO of New Zealand hardware cooperative Mitre 10. He also spent nearly a decade at Home Depot and HD Supply in a variety of roles, finishing his tenure as CO of the electrical and plumbing/HVAC divisions.

New York -- A man who deliberately cut his arms using saws in the aisles of a Home Depot store in suburban Los Angeles on Wednesday is in critical condition, according to media reports.

The man, whose man has not been released, was in the store's tool section when he grabbed several handsaws and began cutting into his upper arms. Panicked customers called 911.

The man was in surgery hours after the incident.