IT’S MALL RIGHT!

Walmart’s stellar quarter paces retail boom

Hold that obit for brickand-mortar retail.

Walmart shocked Wall Street on Thursday by reporting its best quarterly sales gain in a decade — a performance that the company said was the result of a reenergized US consumer.

Nordstrom joined the hit parade later in the afternoon, reporting secondquarter revenue climbed a robust 7.1 percent.

Earlier in the week, both Home Deport and Macy’s reported solid results for the period.

Walmart’s results helped light a fire under the Dow Jones industrial average, which soared 396 points, to 25,558.

The Bentonville, Ark., chain reported same-store sales spiked 4.5 percent from the year-ago period — and it raised its full year profit and sales guidance to 2 percent, from a range of 1.5 percent to 2 percent.

The unexpected increases saw investors pushing the discounter’s shares up 9.3 percent — a gain of $8.40 — to $98.64.

“We benefited from a favorable economic environment and weather,” Chief Executive Doug McMillon said in a statement.

Walmart’s customers “feel better about the current health of the US economy as well as their personal finances,” the CEO said. “They’re more confident about their employment opportunities.”

National retail sales in July rose 4.9 percent, according to government data.

A peek under the hood revealed that Walmart sold more groceries — which account for 56 percent of its revenues — in the quarter than it had in nine years, helping to fuel a 2.3 percent increase in customer transactions.

Customer traffic also rose by 2.2 percent while total revenue rose 3.8 percent, to $128 billion.

“Really impressive results,” said Gordon Haskett analyst Chuck Grom.

Demand for Walmart’s groceries bodes well for the 11,200-store chain as it goes head-to-head with Amazon and Whole Foods, competing on delivery and price.

“We’re making good progress on activating grocery delivery to cover 40 percent of the US population by year-end,” McMillon said.

The latest quarter erased investors’ concerns over the past two quarters when Walmart’s online sales slowed — rising just 23 percent in the fourth quarter and 33 percent in first quarter.

Digital sales came back strong in the most recent quarter, jumping 40 percent — the growth rate Walmart hopes to achieve for the full year.

To be sure, the frothy economy that has helped Walmart and others did not lift all retail boats.

Shares of JCPenney sank to an all-time low, closing down 27 percent, to $1.76, after the chain missed Wall Street top-line expectations. It reported a $101 million loss, up from $48 million a year ago.

The Plano, Texas, chain, which lost its chief executive in May and is searching for a new one, said it had trouble selling women’s apparel despite deep discounting.

Comparable store sales rose just 0.3 percent.