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Walmart on Tuesday reported strong sales during the holiday season as budget-conscious consumers looking for better deals flocked to its stores. The report was a good showing for the company, considering consumers had overall cut back on their spending during the traditional November-December shopping period. Though sales rebounded at stores and restaurants last month, showing shoppers are still spending despite higher prices and several interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in an effort to curb the problem. The nation's largest retailer also delivered full-year sales of $611.3 billion, up 6.7% compared to the prior year. But it gave cautious guidance for the next fiscal year, saying it expects sales to increase between 2.5% to 3% and U.S. sales to jump 2% to 2.5%. And it forecast adjusted earnings per share ranging from $5.90 to $6.05, excluding fuel. Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast $6.52 per share, on average. Shares fell more 4% in premarket trading. Walmart, like
Walmart group digital payments firm PhonePe is planning to shift its headquarters from Singapore to India, according to a source privy to the development. Flipkart, the largest shareholder of the firm, will continue to remain headquartered in Singapore and there is no decision to shift its base. When contacted, a PhonePe spokesperson confirmed the development. "We are in the process of moving our registered entity from Singapore to India," the PhonePe spokesperson said. An email query sent to Flipkart elicited no reply. Flipkart had partially spun-off PhonePe in December 2020 to enable the payments firm to access dedicated capital to fund its long-term ambitions over the next three to four years. The e-commerce firm continues to be its biggest shareholder. As per the last fundraise of USD 700 million, about Rs 5,172 crore, PhonePe was valued at USD 5.5 billion. PhonePe had crossed the 250 million registered user milestone, with over 100 million monthly active users (MAU) genera