| By AFP | Juliette Michel with Beiyi Seow in Washington |
US retailer Walmart saw its earnings top expectations in the third quarter as consumers looked for bargains amid surging inflation, but its numbers were bogged down after a settlement announced Tuesday relating to opioid cases.
The big-box retailer said it “continued to gain market share” in the grocery segment, raising its full-year outlook on strong results despite a challenging environment this year.
Total revenue came in better than expected at $152.8 billion, up 8.7 percent from a year ago.
Walmart also expects that its full-year adjusted profit will decline between 6.5 percent and 7.5 percent — an improvement from earlier estimates.
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But its numbers were bogged down by a settlement resolving allegations that it contributed to the opioid crisis by failing to regulate prescriptions at stores.
The deal is set to provide $3.1 billion to communities nationwide and “require significant improvements in how Walmart’s pharmacies handle opioids,” according to a statement by New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office.
This came as the opioid crisis in the United States — causing more than 500,000 deaths over 20 years — triggered a flurry of lawsuits against drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies.
US pharmacy chains CVS Health and Walgreens similarly announced preliminary agreements this month to pay a total of more than $10 billion to resolve opioid claims.
“Pharmacies such as Walmart played an undeniable role” in perpetuating the harm caused by opioids, said James, adding that the settlement is being sent to other states for review and approval.
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In a separate statement, Walmart said it “strongly disputes” the allegations but believes the settlement will help communities in the fight against the crisis.
Gains in grocery
“With the cost of everyday items still stubbornly high in too many categories, more customers and members are choosing us for the value and assortment we’re known for,” Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon told an earnings call.
Customers are shopping with Walmart more often as well, including wealthier consumers, he said.
“Walmart US continued to gain market share in grocery, helped by unit growth in our food business,” McMillon said in a statement, adding that the company has improved its inventory position.
“When consumer finances get tough, Walmart gets going. That is the central message from today’s strong set of numbers,” said GlobalData managing director Neil Saunders in an analysis.
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He noted that most of the company’s expansion is occurring in grocery where shoppers are feeling the pinch.
Although some of this is down to inflation, “there has also been volume growth which reflects the increase in customer numbers.”
With US inflation hovering near a decades-high level, consumers have been spending more on staples and pulling back on discretionary items, forcing Walmart to cut its profit outlook in July.
The company also announced in recent months that it would hire 40,000 workers for the upcoming holiday season, significantly lower than before.
Investors have been eyeing Walmart’s results as a proxy for demand, and Wall Street stocks climbed in morning trading on signs of resilience among consumers.
The US Supreme Court gives the green light to Trump to dismantle the Department of Education
The US Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump to go ahead with his plan of mass layoffs in the Department of Education, which until now was blocked by an order from a lower court.
The decision overturned a temporary blocking resolution issued by a federal judge in Massachusetts in response to a class action from about twenty states, teachers’ unions and school districts.
The opinion so far prevented the federal government from carrying out the plan it announced at the end of March to cut, this year alone, a third of the more than 4,100 workers in this portfolio.
The Trump Administration’s plan, which has admitted that it cannot close the Department because that is the responsibility of Congress, involves dismantling the agency to the point that it only maintains basic competences related, for example, to the management of aid, scholarships or student loans.
The long-term project is to cut half of the staff working in this portfolio with the idea of eliminating what the Government, which wants to return educational skills to the states, considers a waste of the federal budget.
As usual in cases that are resolved by emergency channels, the majority of judges in favor of the ruling did not explain the basis of their decision, rejected by the three liberal judges of the court, Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan.
For the Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, the judicial decision confirms “the obvious, that the president of the United States, as head of the executive branch, has the authority in the final instance to make decisions about personnel, the administrative organization and the day-to-day of the federal agencies.”
“As well as today’s ruling is an important victory for students and families, it is a shame that the highest court in the country has had to intervene to allow President Trump to move forward with the reforms that the Americans chose him to implement using the authorities granted by the Constitution,” the head of Education said in a statement.
Colombian Senator Uribe Turbay, shows clinical improvement and begins neurological rehabilitation
Colombian senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, seriously injured in the head in an attack on June 7, has had a clinical improvement and a process of neurological rehabilitation began, reported this Monday the Santa Fe Foundation of Bogotá, where he has been hospitalized since then.
“During the last few days the patient has shown a favorable and stable clinical response, evidenced both in the recent diagnostic images taken (magnetic resonance, tomography, Doppler, among others), and in his response to surgical and medical interventions,” says the medical report.
According to the Santa Fe Foundation, “in this context, and as part of the comprehensive care process, the neurorehabilitation protocol was initiated.”
The medical report, the first disclosed by the Santa Fe Foundation in the last eleven days, points out, however, that the 39-year-old politician continues with a “reserved” neurological prognosis.
“Miguel Uribe Turbay requires continuing his management in the Intensive Care Unit, with mechanical ventilatory support and under sedation, as well as with hemodynamic and neurological monitoring for the early detection of any change,” the statement adds.
Uribe Turbay, a member of the right-wing Democratic Center party, was shot twice in the head and one in the left leg when he was leading a rally in a park in the Bogota neighborhood of Modelia, an attack that has revived among Colombians the ghost of political violence that marked the 1990 elections in which three presidential candidates were killed.
Due to the severity of the injuries suffered, the politician, one of the candidates of the Democratic Center for the 2026 presidential elections, has undergone several surgeries in Santa Fe.
The authorities, for their part, have made some progress in the investigation of the attack, for which five people have been arrested, including the hit man who shot him, a 15-year-old boy who was found with a Glock pistol used in the attack.
The other four detainees have been accused by the Prosecutor’s Office of participating in the preparation and cover-up of the attack, and among them is Elder José Arteaga Hernández, alias ‘el Costeño’, considered by the authorities as a key piece for being the alleged organizer of the attempted murder.
Zelenski proposes the Minister of Economy, Sviridenko, as the new prime minister
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed on Monday the current Minister of Economy, Yulia Sviridenko, as the new prime minister to replace the current head of government, Denis Shmigal.
“I have proposed that Yulia Sviridenko lead the Government of Ukraine and significantly renew her work. I look forward to the presentation of the new Government action plan in the near future,” Zelenski wrote in X after meeting with Sviridenko.
The Ukrainian president spoke with the current Minister of Economy about “concrete measures to double Ukraine’s economic potential, to expand support programs for Ukrainians and to increase domestic weapons production.”
Zelenski and Sviridenko also reviewed the economic agreements signed by Ukraine at the international conference for the reconstruction of the country held in Rome on Thursday and last Friday.
Several Ukrainian media had advanced weeks ago that Sviridenko would soon replace Denis Shmigal as prime minister. At the head of the Economy portfolio, Sviridenko, 39, has been one of the most visible and active figures in the Government in recent months.
