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wal-mart's sales are rising Wal-Mart's November Sales Are Rising Within Forecast on Food

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, said November sales at its U.S. stores are rising within its forecast, led by groceries.

The company has forecast a sales gain this month of 3 percent to 5 percent from a year earlier at its U.S. stores open at least one year. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer updated results through yesterday in a recorded call today.

Sales of food outpaced general merchandise for the 15th time in 17 weeks.

Wal-Mart on Nov. 1 started its earliest-ever holiday advertising campaign, hoping to entice shoppers already in the store for basic items to buy higher-end electronics and clothing. A drop in gasoline prices and cooler weather lifted spending last month.

``Employment's good and they traffic in consumables, so you can't postpone that forever,'' said Dan Popowics, an analyst at Fifth Third Asset Management in Cincinnati, with $22 billion in assets including Wal-Mart shares. Falling gasoline prices have also increased spending, he said.

Wal-Mart two days ago said October sales rose 4.3 percent, above its predicted range. The average price of gasoline fell 17 percent to about $2.45 a gallon on Nov. 3 from $2.94 a month earlier, according to AAA. The Nov. 3 price is still 21 percent higher than about $2.02 a year earlier.

October

Wal-Mart calculates same-store sales using locations open at the start of the prior fiscal year. Starting in February, it will adopt the more common gauge of sales at stores open at least a year. By that measure, October's gain was almost 4.7 percent, Wal-Mart said in its monthly sales report.

The retailer also said it still has 11 locations in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas closed because of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

The locations include six supercenters, four discount stores and one Sam's Club.

October retail sales rose 4.4 percent, better-than-expected and the biggest gain since June, said the International Council of Shopping Centers in New York on Nov. 3.

No. 2 discount-chain Target Corp. beat its own forecast of a 3 percent to 5 percent gain in October, posting a 5.7 percent rise. The Minneapolis-based retailer said it expects a 4 percent to 6 percent same-store sales increase this month. Target reports its third-quarter earnings on Nov. 10 and Wal-Mart on Nov. 14.

Target shoppers have an average household income that's $15,000 to $20,000 greater than the $35,000 to $40,000 average for Wal-Mart customers, said Todd Jones, who helps manage $50 billion including Wal-Mart shares at Philadelphia-based PNC Advisors.

For Wal-Mart, ``we are quite comfortable'' with a fourth- quarter comparable-store increase of 3 percent to 4 percent, driven by higher general merchandise sales, FTN Midwest Research Securities Corp. analyst Jeff Stinson wrote in an Oct. 31 report. Cleveland-based Stinson doesn't rate the shares.

Shares of Wal-Mart rose 24 cents to $47.69 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday. They have declined 16 percent in the past year, while shares of Target increased 11 percent.