Walmart Cites Worrying Economic Indicators in Cautious Forecast

Walmart Inc., a bellwether of consumer spending, cited a “hiring recession” and pressures on shoppers as it forecast less growth in earnings this year than Wall Street was expecting.

“There’s a whole lot of the year to go in what’s still a pretty fluid, dynamic macro backdrop,” Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said in an interview Thursday. “When you look at whatever your favorite macro statistic to point to is — the hiring recession, the fact that student delinquencies are up, there’s still trade uncertainty — we think it’s prudent to be somewhat measured with the outlook right now.”