Walmart cut its earning forecast for the year amid higher healthcare and investment costs as weak US sales continued to weigh on business, dpa quoted the world's largest retailer as saying Thursday. Increased competition and higher costs weighed on Walmart's second quarter earnings, which saw net profits fall 3.4 per cent to 3.9 billion dollars. Revenue rose 3 per cent to 119.3 billion dollars, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer said. The discounter saw disappointing results in its home US market as sales remained flat after five straight quarters of declining sales. Last month, Walmart replaced its head of US operations, Bill Simon, who had led the division for eight years. His successor, Greg Foran, has been tasked with turning around the US operations. Walmart was slow to enter the online shopping market and has been forced to catch up with competitors such as Amazon. It has also faced growing competition from smaller US discounters such as Dollar Tree and Family Dollar, which together have more than 13,000 stores. -- SPA 22:57 LOCAL TIME 19:57 GMT تغريد
