Data & Analytics

New Albany, Ohio -- Abercrombie & Fitch Co. on Tuesday reported a profit of $50 million for the quarter ended Oct. 30, compared with $38.8 million in the year-ago period. Its results were helped by improving sales in the United States and international revenue.

Sales rose 18% to $886 million, matching Wall Street expectations. Same-store sales increased 7%. By division, same-store sales rose 8% at namesake stores, 2% at Abercrombie kids stores and 7% at surf-themed Hollister stores.

Atlanta -- Home Depot reported Tuesday that it recorded higher-than-expected earnings in the third quarter, boosted by tighter cost controls.

The company’s net income rose to $834 million in the quarter ended Oct. 31, compared with net income of $689 million a year earlier.

Sales rose 1.4% to $16.60 billion, slightly above Wall Street expectations of $16.59 billion. Same-store sales at Home Depot's U.S. stores rose 1.5%. It was the chain’s fourth-straight quarterly gain after three years of declines

Seattle -- Nordstrom said its third-quarter profit rose a more-than-expected 43% to $119 million on improved sales and margin improvements. The company raised the low end of its fiscal year profit forecast.

Revenues rose to $2.18 billion from $1.96 billion. Same-store sales increased 5.8%.

Best-selling items were jewelry, shoes and dresses.

"Our customers are highly receptive to newness and fashion in spite of the soft economic climate," company president Blake Nordstrom said in a conference call with analysts.

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.