(Bloomberg) -- Walmart Inc. finally gave the U.S. retail sector some good news.
The company brushed off the industry’s disappointing December sales with its best holiday quarter in at least a decade, soothing concerns about the sector’s outlook for 2019. Comparable sales for Walmart stores in the U.S. -- a key performance barometer -- rose 4.2 percent in the quarter that included Christmas, beating analysts’ estimates by a full percentage point.
“This is a blockbuster quarter for Walmart,” Moody’s analyst Charlie O’Shea said in an interview.
Shares jumped as much as 3.9 percent on Tuesday -- the most in almost two months.