Walmart sees online sales jump

Walmart this week reported that online sales rose 50 percent, the company said.

Shares of Walmart's stock rose nearly 9 percent to an all-time high as a result of that news.

"Walmart is firmly on the advance, both in its home market and elsewhere," said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, told The Washington Post. "From our data, it is clear that Walmart is not only getting existing customers to spend more online but is also attracting new shoppers.”



Low costs

Shares in Tyson Foods Inc., parent company of Tyson Mexican Original, Portland, climbed to their highest level in more than a year this week after the company reported higher earnings and revenue for the quarter that ended Sept. 30 than analysts had expected.

The quarterly report sent share prices up 1.4 percent on Monday

Talking with Wall Street reporters, company spokesmen attributed the earnings jump to lower prices for livestock feed and said that will be a factor again next year.

Tyson’s feed costs fell $65 million in the quarter and net income rose by $3 million to $394 million. For fiscal 2017, feed costs dropped by $80 million after four years of bumper harvests lowered prices, Reuters reported. 

Feed costs should stay flat in 2018, Tyson Chief Executive Tom Hayes told reporters, because this year’s corn and soybean harvests will again be at or near record levels.

“Certainly feed remains a huge component,” he said. “We are always looking at corn and soy.”

The company’s poultry business is the part that benefits most from cheap feed. Grain accounts for more than half the cost of growing a chicken.



New building

The Bank of Geneva is planning a new building in Decatur close to its current branch in the Village Green Shopping Center, The Daily Democrat reported this week.

The bank has approached the Decatur City Council to have the building site on the southwest corner of county road 500 North and 13th Street annexed.

A public hearing on the annexation was set for Dec. 5.



Parternship losses

The Irish Independent reports that an investment partnership that includes the largest shareholder in Ardagh Grouip has more than $10 million in retained losses.

Paul Coulson, Ardagh’s chairman as well as its largest shareholder, is part of something called Anglo Irish JCF 1 LLP along with other high-profile Irish businesses leaders.

Meanwhile, Ardagh has scaled back its full-year earnings forecast, according to the Irish Times. The move is blamed on weakness in the U.S. dollar and the beer market.

The company, parent of glass container plants in Dunkirk and Winchester, now expects its full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (ebitda) to be 1.34 billion Euros. 

That’s down from its original full-year earnings target of 1.4 billion Euros.



New HQ

Tyson Foods has opened its new office building in downtown Springdale, Arkansas, a move that is expected to bring 300 Tyson employees to downtown.

“Our goal has been to work collaboratively with the Downtown Springdale Alliance, the Chamber of Commerce and business leaders to bring new life to Emma Avenue,” John Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods’ board of directors, said in a prepared statement. 

“Today, we’ve taken another step in reaching that goal and achieving our collective vision of transforming downtown Springdale.”

The new building is the second office Tyson Foods has opened in downtown Springdale and brings the company’s total employment on Emma Avenue to approximately 400. In 2016, the company opened a 28,000-square-foot building located at 516 E. Emma Ave., named the Tyson Foods JTL Building in recognition of its original use as the first truck terminal for Jones Truck Lines.