DIY: Home Depot and Lowe’s reduce annual forecasts

Affected by a fall in discretionary spending, The Home Depot (2022 sales of US$160 billion, net margin of 10.9% of sales) is not optimistic for the current financial year. Instead of stagnating as originally forecast, the business said that sales are expected to fall by up to 5% during this year. This is the first time this happened since 2009. The announcement follows a decline in sales of around 4.2% in Q1 2023, to US$37.26 billion. At Lowe’s, the 2nd largest DIY retailer in the USA, the...