Sears earns $26M in Q1

Hoffman Estates, Ill. Sears Holdings Corp. reversed a year-long loss and posted a profit of $26 million for its first quarter as it strived to manage inventory in its stores.

Sales, however, fell more than 9% to $10.06 billion, from $11.07 billion. Same-store sales in its U.S. Sears stores slid 11.7%. Same-store sales in Kmart stores 2.1%.

"In this challenging economic environment, we are pleased with the progress we have made in improving our gross margin rate, controlling inventories and further reducing our cost structure," interim chief executive W. Bruce Johnson said in a statement. "Our efforts had a clear impact on our overall results."

Sears also said Thursday that it entered an amended credit agreement to extend the maturity date of a revolving facility to June 2012. The original $4 billion credit agreement was to expire in March 2011. The new agreement allows Sears to increase its borrowing capacity to $4.1 billion until March 2011.