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Walmart Falls After Forecasting Earnings Drop, More Spending

  • Retailer will raise wages to average of more than $15 an hour
  • Digital advertising, health care will be investor event focus
The Walmart+ home screen on a laptop computer.

The Walmart+ home screen on a laptop computer.

Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg
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Walmart Inc. fell after forecasting a slowdown in sales and profit for the year, plus billions of additional spending on worker salaries, automation and other technology.

The retailer said Thursday earnings per share will decline slightly in the fiscal year that just started, though will be flat or slightly up when excluding divestitures. Although U.S. comparable sales will stay positive this year, they’ll rise in the low-single-digits, below the recent breakneck rate but on pace with estimates.