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Amazon (AMZN) shares advanced as the biggest online retailer said its Prime Day event this week was record-setting.

The company said that sales and number of items sold during Prime Big Deal Days on Tuesday and Wednesday were the most ever for one of its October events. Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, said it “marked a strong start to the holiday shopping season.”

Amazon is not alone in trying to get a jump on the key sales period heading into Christmas. Target’s (TGT) second Target Circle Week of the year kicked off on Sunday and runs through Saturday. Walmart’s (WMT) Holiday Deals event runs until Sunday.

Retailers may need the extra boost. Consultancy firm Bain & Co. predicts a below-average holiday sales increase of 3% this year, with declines for department stores, furniture and home furnishings stores, and stores that sell building and garden materials. It sees e-commerce sales as a winner, rising 5% or more.

Bain said that Americans across all income levels “are putting a freeze on their overall outlook and spending.” Its recommendation to retailers on how to boost sales is “emphasize value, no matter what your price point.”

Shares of Amazon have added a quarter of their value this year, while Walmart shares have doubled that. Shares of Target are up about 9%.

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Shares of Truth Social's parent company jumped Thursday, rising as the company announced some product news that helped the stock touch its highest level in months.

Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT) stock recently was up more than 16% to around $24. The move comes as the shares have risen off lows below $12 per share touched last month. 

Today's move likely was spurred in part by the company's announcement that a new app for watching its streaming video offering is now available in Google's Play Store.

But the stock generally has risen in recent weeks, moving off lows driven by investor questions about whether the expiration of lock-up agreements governing some investors' trades would be followed by widespread selling by former President Donald Trump, its majority owner, or other big investors. That, for the most part, hasn't happened.

That extended a run of volatility that has lasted nearly as long as the stock, which hit the public markets earlier this year via a merger with a blank-check company, has been publicly traded. The shares—which trade in part on investors' read on whether Trump might be re-elected—are still well off 2024 highs near $80, though now back at levels last seen in August. 

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Walmart Inc. (WMT) is the largest brick-and-mortar retailer in the world with about 10,500 locations in 19 countries worldwide. That's a dramatic change from nearly six decades ago when Sam Walton opened a single discount store in Rogers, Arkansas. The company went public and rapidly expanded eight years later.

The company operates an empire of brick-and-mortar stores under the Walmart name as well as its membership-only Sam's Club outlets and a growing e-commerce business. The company generated $648.1 billion in revenue and consolidated net income of $15.5 billion in Walmart's FY 2024, ended Jan. 31, 2024.

Walmart's acquisitions have been aimed at sharply expanding its presence in e-commerce to fend off digital retailing giant Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN). Walmart ventured abroad in 2018 and paid $16 billion for a majority stake in Flipkart, India's largest e-commerce company. It bought out other investors and increased its hold in the company and India's market in 2023.

Jet.com was founded in 2014 and is one of the fastest-growing U.S. e-commerce companies. Walmart acquired Jet.com for about $3.3 billion in 2016 to compete with Amazon.com. Jet.com was an independent company before the acquisition. Jet.com founder Marc Lore joined the Walmart executive leadership team as part of the deal.

Walmart reported FY 2024 U.S. e-commerce net sales of $65.4 billion, up 22.47% year-over-year (YOY), aided by its expanded e-commerce business.

Walmart doesn't provide breakdowns of the revenue that each acquisition contributes to the company.

ShoeBuy, rebranded as Shoes.com, was launched in 1999 as an online footwear retailer. The company was purchased by IAC in 2006. Walmart subsidiary Jet.com acquired ShoeBuy from IAC for approximately $70 million in 2016. This acquisition took place just months after Walmart acquired Jet.com.

This deal marks a key expansion for Jet.com into footwear retailing, an area not previously represented by the online retailer. It also marks a move by Walmart to provide a comprehensive e-commerce experience similar to Amazon.

Bonobos was launched in 2007 as an internet-based apparel brand and eventually expanded to include a growing number of brick-and-mortar locations as well in 2012. The company was independent at the time of its acquisition by Walmart in mid-2017. Walmart appointed Bonobos founder and CEO Andy Dunn to lead Walmart's effort to help boost sales of online consumer brands after the takeover.

The Bonobos deal came a few months after Walmart acquired another online apparel company, ModCloth, although ModCloth was sold two years later.

Moosejaw specializes in outdoor recreation gear and apparel. It was founded in 1992 and ultimately developed a retail presence primarily online. Moosejaw counted several private equity firms as major stakeholders at the time of its purchase by Walmart in 2017. Moosejaw was allowed to operate as a standalone brand under Walmart. It retained its site and physical stores as well as its operations in Michigan.

The deal expanded Walmart's presence in the market for outdoor recreational gears at a time when Amazon was also growing rapidly.

As part of our effort to improve the awareness of the importance of diversity in companies, we have highlighted the transparency of Walmart's commitment to diversity, inclusiveness, and social responsibility. This chart illustrates how Walmart reports the diversity of its management and workforce. This shows if Walmart discloses data about the diversity of its board of directors, C-Suite, general management, and employees overall, across a variety of markers. We have indicated that transparency with a ✔. 

Walmart had a market cap of $636.59 billion as of Oct. 8, 2024.

Walmart's e-commerce unit faced a $1 billion loss in its early years. Selling ModCloth was reportedly a move toward revamping its online sales strategy.

It has indeed. Walmart reported $559.1 billion in total revenue in its fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2021. That figure increased to more than $648.1 billion in its fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2024.

Walmart has been strategically focused on expanding its presence in e-commerce after establishing a firm grip on the brick-and-mortar retail sector. It’s the largest brick-and-mortar retailer in the world with about 10,500 locations in 19 countries. It’s added notable e-commerce sites Flipkart,Jet.com, and ShoeBuy since 2016. Walmart reported FY 2024 U.S. e-commerce net sales of $65.4 billion, up 22.47% year-over-year.

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The Japan-based owner of 7-Eleven stores, Seven & i Holdings, is shaking up its operations as it faces a takeover effort by the Canadian parent of Circle K stores.

Seven & i announced Thursday that it was establishing an intermediate holding company, which will be a wholly owned subsidiary called SST, containing its supermarket food business, specialty store and other businesses.

It explained the move was to accelerate a possible initial public offering (IPO) of SST "in order to unlock value for the company's shareholders and other stakeholders."

Seven & i noted that the SST group's "growth story differs from the convenience store business's."

Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard had offered $39 billion for Seven & i, which the firm rejected last month. However, Seven & i said it was open to talks if the bid was increased, and yesterday said that it had received "a revised confidential, private and non-binding proposal" without elaborating.

On its earnings call today, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ryuichi Isaka was quoted as saying that Seven & i would "respond sincerely to proposals which will increase our corporate value."

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Domino's Pizza (DPZ) shares fell Thursday morning when the pizza delivery giant's better-than-expected profit was offset by a revenue miss and soft guidance.

The company reported third-quarter earnings per share (EPS) of $4.19, $0.59 above the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha. Revenue was up 5.1% year-over-year to $1.08 billion, but that was short of forecasts.

Domino’s said the performance was driven primarily by higher revenue from its supply chain, U.S. franchise advertising, and U.S. franchise royalties and fees. The company noted the supply chain gains came mostly from a rise in order volumes and an increase in the "food basket pricing to stores."

Gross margin at U.S. company-owned stores climbed 1.0 percentage point, which it attributed to "sales leverage due to higher customer transaction counts."

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Russell Weiner explained that the results demonstrated the company's strategy is working "despite a pressured global marketplace."

Domino’s warned that full-year performance will be affected by a "challenging macroeconomic environment and its impact on current business trends across the globe." It now sees 2024 global retail sales growth of 6%, down from at least 7%.

Shares of Domino's Pizza, which were basically flat year-to-date through Wednesday's close, slipped about 2% soon after the opening bell.

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Shares of TD Bank (TD) are falling in premarket trading on a report that the Canadian bank is set to pay around $3 billion in penalties and accept limits on its U.S. growth over charges it failed to curb money laundering by drug cartels.

According to , the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is expected to place a limit on how much the bank's U.S. retail operations can grow.

In a previous report, the said TD's U.S. unit planned to plead guilty to criminal charges to resolve a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) probe into money laundering allegations tied to a Chinese crime operation.

In August, TD Bank Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bharat Masrani said the bank was working with U.S. regulators and law enforcement to resolve the issues.

TD Bank posted an unexpected third-quarter loss that month as it set aside billions of dollars in anticipation of the fines over the probe into its anti-money-laundering (AML) practices.

The Canadian lender last month said that Masrani would be stepping down in April 2025 and announced a succession plan for the CEO.

Shares of TD Bank, which didn't immediately respond to an request for comment, were down 4.5% in premarket trading Thursday. They had been 1.7% lower on the year through Wednesday's close.

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