By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO

Walmart delivered another standout quarter, posting strong sales and profits that blew past Wall Street expectations as it wins over more cash-strapped Americans who have grown increasing anxious about the economy.

With other retailers dialing back projections, the nation’s largest retailer raised its financial outlook Thursday after its strong third quarter, setting itself up for a strong holiday shopping season.

Quarterly profit slide at Target hints at a challenging holiday season for the retailer

Walmart Inc., based in Bentonville, Arkansas, also said Thursday that it will be transferring the listing of its common stock to the tech-heavy Nasdaq from the New York Stock Exchange. It expects its common stock to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on December 9, under the the same ticker symbol “WMT.”

CEO Doug McMillon, who surprised investors with plans to retire early next year, has reshaped Walmart itself as tech-powered retail giant that has leaned heavily into automation and artificial intelligence.

McMillon spearheaded a period of robust sales growth since becoming chief executive in 2014, going toe-to-toe with online behemoth Amazon and , plans to retire early next year. John Furner, 51, the head of Walmart’s U.S. operations, will take over on Feb. 1, the day after McMillon’s retirement becomes effective, the company said.

The leadership change at Walmart arrives at a challenging time for retailers and other U.S. companies. They have spent months navigating an uncertain economic environment as President Donald Trump’s administration imposes wide-ranging tariffs on imports and pursues an immigration crackdown that has threatened to shrink the number of workers availabe in America.

Walmart’s performance serves as a barometer of consumer spending given its size and vast customer base. The company maintains that 90% of U.S. households rely on Walmart for a range of products, and more than 150 million customers shop on its website or in its stores every week.

So analysts will be focusing on consumer health heading into the holiday shopping season and more details on how Furman will fill the hole that will be left by McMillon. Analysts expect Furman to continue the strategies pushed forward by McMillon.

Under McMillon leadership, Walmart has been laser-focused on maintaining low prices while embracing new technology like artificial intelligence and robotics. Walmart has also invested heavily in e-commerce and faster deliveries under McMillon’s stewardship.

Walmart has also looked for new sources of revenue like advertising and launched a membership program called Walmart + to compete with Amazon Prime, its rival’s free shipping program.

Such strategies have helped bolster Walmart’s results in the latest quarter.

Third-quarter profits rose to $6.14 billion, or 77 cents per share, in the quarter ended Oct. 31. That compares with $4.58 billion, or 57 cents per share, for the year-ago period.

Adjusted earnings was 66 cents for the quarter.

Sales rose nearly 6% to $179.5 billion, up from $169.6 billion in the year-ago period.

Analysts were forecasting a profit of 60 cents on sales of $177.44 billion, according to FactSet.

Comparable sales — those from sales from established physical stores and online channels— at U.S. namesake stores rose 4.5% in the fiscal third quarter. In the previous quarter, sales for that measure were up 4.6%.

Global e-commerce sales rose 27%,. That follows a 25% jump in the second quarter and a 22% growth in the first quarter.

The company said that it now expects adjusted profits per share for the fiscal year to be in the range of $2.58 to $2.63, up from the early guidance offered in August of $2.52 to $2.62 per share.

It also said that its expects sales for the year to be up anywhere from 4.8% to 5.1%. That’s up from its earlier estimates of 3.75% to 4.75%.

Analysts were predicting $2.61 per share, according to FactSet analysts.

Related Articles

As infant botulism cases climb to 31, recalled ByHeart baby formula is still on some store shelves

Fed minutes: Most officials supported more rate cuts but not necessarily in December

Labor Department won’t release full October jobs report, a casualty of the 43-day federal shutdown

McDonald’s is losing its low-income customers. Economists call it a symptom of the stark wealth divide

Nvidia earnings clear lofty hurdle set by analysts amid fears about an AI bubble

Today is Thursday, Nov. 20, the 324th day of 2025. There are 41 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 20, 1945, 22 former Nazi officials went on trial before an international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany. (Almost a year later, the International Military Tribune sentenced 12 of the defendants to death; seven received prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life; three were acquitted.)

Also on this date:

In 1910, Francisco Madero led a revolt against Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, marking the beginning of the decade-long Mexican Revolution.

Related Articles

Trump signs bill to release Jeffrey Epstein case files after fighting it for months

Speculation intensifies in the death of a Florida high schooler on a cruise

Judge to proceed with contempt probe after US flew migrants to El Salvador prison in March

Veteran FBI employee sues bureau after being fired over displaying a pride flag

Trump administration revives rollbacks of species protections from first term

1947, Britain’s future queen, Princess Elizabeth, married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey.

In 1969, Native American activists began an occupation of Alcatraz Island that would last 19 months before they were forcibly removed by federal authorities.

In 1982, the University of California, Berkeley, football team defeated Stanford University by scoring a touchdown on a lateral-filled kickoff return on the last play of the game, despite the Stanford marching band entering the field of play, thinking Stanford had already won. In college football lore, the bizarre finish is often referred to simply as “The Play.”

In 1992, fire seriously damaged Windsor Castle, the favorite weekend home of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.

In 2003, music producer Phil Spector was charged with murder in the shooting of actor Lana Clarkson at his California home. (After a first trial ended with a hung jury in 2007, Spector was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009 and sentenced to 19 years to life; he died in prison at age 81 on Jan. 16, 2021.)

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor Estelle Parsons is 98.
Author Don DeLillo is 89.
Comedian Dick Smothers is 87.
Former President Joe Biden is 83.
Broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff is 79.
Musician Joe Walsh is 78.
Actor Bo Derek is 69.
Actor Ming-Na Wen is 62.
Rapper Michael “Mike D” Diamond (Beastie Boys) is 60.
Actor-comedian Joel McHale is 54.
Country singer Dierks Bentley is 50.
Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Dominique Dawes is 49.
Rapper Future is 42.

“MVP and a championship.”

Those were Anthony Edwards’ stated goals entering the 2025-26 season. There was little reason to doubt his pursuit of either. The Timberwolves guard had made massive strides each season, dragging the franchise along with him in the process.

Why couldn’t he ascend to the sport’s ultimate individual and team heights this year?

This week is why.

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) looks to pass as Dallas Mavericks center Moussa Cisse (30) and guard Max Christie (00), back, defend during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Being the best player in the world – or something very close to it – requires a robotic-level of dominance.

You walk onto the court, you take over the game.

Rinse, repeat – for the 70-plus times you take the floor in the regular season and beyond. There’s no room for duds like the one Edwards delivered in Minnesota’s home win Wednesday over Washington. The guard was aggressive in the first quarter, logging 12 points, two steals, a rebound and a blocked shot.

But then the shots stopped falling, and Edwards stopped impacting the game in any way, shape or form. Minnesota fell off the tracks in the second half, allowing a once 27-point lead to be trimmed to five by the one-win Wizards with fewer than five minutes to play.

“Really (we just lost) our edge and our activity and our aggressiveness,” Wolves forward Julius Randle said. “All that stuff, we kind of just left it in (the locker room) at halftime.”

Edwards led the charge on Minnesota’s relative indifference. He played all 12 minutes in a third frame in which the Wolves were out-scored 36-23. In that quarter, he scored two points on 1 for 7 shooting. On top of the misfires, he accrued a grand total of zero assists, rebounds, steals or blocks.

More of the same came in the closing quarter, where he scored two points to go with an assist and a turnover. Edwards was invisible on offense and not impactful in any other phase of the game. If your shots aren’t falling — Edwards has hit just 3 of his 30 3-point attempts over the past four games — then do something else.

He finished with 18 points on 30% shooting to go with two rebounds and two assists against Washington.

MVP? MVP?

Hey, there are 82 games. You’re bound to be at less than your best at various points throughout the course of a regular season. But the game’s best – the ones who legitimately contend for the ultimate awards – make their presence felt on a nightly basis.

That stat line from Edwards against Washington – shooting 30% or worse from the field on a night where you also grab two or fewer rebounds and dish out two or fewer assists in 30-plus minutes of action – has never been replicated even one time by any of the following players:

-Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

-Giannis Antetokounmpo

-Luka Doncic

-Steph Curry

-LeBron James

-Kawhi Leonard

And many more. Including Randle, who’s had that consistent impact Minnesota has desperately needed all season. Without it, the Timberwolves simply wouldn’t be 10-5 at this point in the campaign.

Forget League MVP, Edwards isn’t carrying the bulk of his own team’s burden at the moment.

Even as a one off, Edwards’ game Wednesday is simply not a performance those other names would accept from themselves. But an even bigger issue is this clunker came directly off the heels of another.

Against Dallas on Monday, Edwards shot 35.7% from the field while recording four rebounds and three assists in 29 minutes. The 24 year old has now shot 36% or worse with four or fewer rebounds and three or fewer assists in 28-plus minutes in consecutive games.

Here’s how many single games in which that’s happened throughout the careers of Doncic and Jokic: Zero.

LeBron James has done it one time in 1,563 career games.

It hasn’t happened to Antetokounmpo and Jayson Tatum since they were 22 years old, and Gilgeous-Alexander since he was 23.

Those players represent a high bar, but that’s supposedly the air Edwards hopes to occupy. It’s not the stratosphere in which he currently resides. That realm is reserved for those who deliver consistent excellence on a game-to-game basis, something Minnesota’s All-NBA guard is still either unwilling or unable to achieve.

Those are the guys who are able to bear heavy loads deep into the postseason and lift trophies in late May and June. They build up those muscles throughout the season to the point where elite production becomes second nature. Even the exhausted versions of themselves can deliver it, because it’s all they know.

If Edwards can’t do that, then his current goals feel rather unreachable.

Related Articles

Jaden McDaniels’ iron-man streak comes to end

Is Timberwolves guard Jaylen Clark a … defensive superstar?

Five takeaways from the Wolves win over Dallas

Timberwolves fall to Denver, now 0-5 against teams with winning records

Donte DiVincenzo’s 3-ball falls as Timberwolves improve to 2-0 in NBA Cup play

Matt Boldy scored on a backhand shot in the shootout as the Minnesota Wild somehow withstood a relentless offensive effort by the Carolina Hurricanes, seeing a pair of two-goal leads slip away but prevailing for a 4-3 win.

Rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt was the difference-maker with 43 saves as the Wild improved to 7-1-1 in November.

Wallstedt stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout, improving to 5-0-2 as a starter.

Right about the time the clock struck 9 p.m., with the game less than two minutes old, the Wild extended their franchise record and scored first in a 10th consecutive game. Brock Faber’s fourth goal of the year came on a precise redirect of a Mats Zuccarello shot.

While the Wild’s penalty kill, cumulatively, has hovered among the bottom five in the NHL all season, they mustered the best outcome available while rookie Zeev Buium was in the penalty box. Popping on a turnover at the far blue line, Boldy’s low shot gave Minnesota its first short-handed goal of the season, and the Wild’s first at home in nearly two years.

By late in the second period, Wallstedt’s shutout streak had stretched to nearly three full games. But with the Hurricanes’ offense coming in waves, the run was in obvious jeopardy.

Former Eden Prairie prep star Jackson Blake clanked the post in the latter half of the middle frame, then got the visitors on the board a few minutes later. The shutout streak of 175 minutes, 12 seconds was the fourth-longest in franchise history.

It was also the first five-on-five goal allowed by the Wild in more than 302 minutes.

With the disastrous second period behind them, Zuccarello’s breakaway goal just 15 seconds into the third gave the Wild some needed breathing room. It was Zuccarello’s first goal of the season, and gave him six points in six games since returning from an injury that had him out of the lineup for the first month.

But third-period goals by Sebastian Aho and Blake ,again — with 66 seconds left in regulation — and the Carolina goalie on the bench, forced overtime. Wallstedt’s body of work included stopping Blake on an overtime breakaway.

Frederik Andersen had 16 saves for Carolina, which beat the Wild 4-3 in Raleigh two weeks ago — Minnesota’s only regulation loss of the month.

The Wild next head out on a three-game, pre-Thanksgiving road trip starting Friday evening when they make their only visit to Pittsburgh this season.

Briefly

With the PWHL’s Minnesota Frost beginning their drive for a third consecutive Walter Cup title on Friday when they open the season at Grand Casino Arena versus Toronto, members of the Wild showed support for their co-tenants in the downtown St. Paul rink before facing Carolina. Matt Boldy, Jake Middleton, Brock Faber and several other Wild players made their entrance to the locker room wearing the distinctive purple and white Frost sweaters on Wednesday. Frost stars Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle, holding the team’s two Walter Cup trophies, led the “Let’s Play Hockey!” cheer before the game’s opening faceoff.

Related Articles

Wild could face a player surplus as they get healthier

As injuries mount, Yakov Trenin becomes emergency center for Wild

Kirill Kaprizov plays the hero in Wild’s OT win over Knights

Confidence in goalie tandem brings Wild on-ice freedom

Defense does in Ducks as Wild climb back above .500