Wal-Mart Is Best-Performing Dow Stock of 2016

Only one Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) component has shares that have posted a gain so far this year. Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s (NYSE: WMT) stock is up 1% to $61.93, while the Dow is off 8.3% to 15,988 for the same period.

One would not guess Wal-Mart is doing so well. Business headlines recently have been dominated by the retailer’s decision to close 269 of its 11,200 stores. That may cost as many as 16,000 jobs, but Wal-Mart, which has 2.4 million workers worldwide, hopes to find store homes for them at other locations.

Wal-Mart’s position as the only Dow stock in positive territory is also curious because the National Retail Federation reported November and December sales for U.S. retailers rose only 3%, which was below forecast. As it is the largest participant in the industry, that should make Wall Street uneasy about Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart continues to face labor complaints. It will raise the minimum wage of its hourly workers to $10 next month. That should hurt Wal-Mart’s bottom line. Because some experts believe $10 an hour is not a “living wage,” the agitation to lift the figure higher will persist. With each dollar Wal-Mart increases the wage level, it losses tens of millions of dollars.
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Wal-Mart also has been described as the largest punching bag for surging online behemoth Amazon.com Inc. (NYSE: AMZN). As the traditional retail industry is eaten alive, Wal-Mart should suffer more in terms of raw sales because of its size. Even with this unavoidable threat, investors have not pushed Wal-Mart shares into negative territory, for the time being.

Other than this long list of problems, Wal-Mart is doing fine.