Good morning and thank you for joining us to review Walmart’s Second Quarter Fiscal 2018 Results. This is Steve Schmitt, Vice President of Investor Relations at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. The date of this call is August 17, 2017. On today's call you will hear from Doug McMillon, President and CEO as well as Brett Biggs, CFO. This call contains statements that Walmart believes are forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, and that are intended to enjoy the protection of the Safe Harbor for forward-looking information provided by that Act. A cautionary statement regarding forward looking statements is at the end of this call. As a reminder, our earnings materials include the press release, transcript and accompanying slide presentation which are intended to be used together. All of this information, along with our fiscal 2018 earnings release dates, store counts, square footage, earnings infographic and other materials are available on the investors’ portion of our corporate website stock.walmart.com. For our U.S. comp sales reporting in fiscal 2018, we utilize a 52-week calendar. Our Q2 reporting period ran from Saturday, April 29, 2017 through Friday, July 28, 2017. Before we get started, I’d like to remind you of a few upcoming dates. Our annual Investment Community Meeting will be held in Northwest Arkansas on October 9 and 10. Registration will begin next week. Also, we will release [second] quarter earnings on Thursday, November 16. And now, I'd like to turn it over to Walmart’s CEO, Doug McMillon.

Good morning, everyone and thanks for joining us today. Our second quarter results were solid with continued topline momentum in the business. Walmart U.S. grew comp sales 1.8% and comp traffic 1.3%. We continue to gain traction in e-commerce with Walmart U.S. GMV up 67%. The U.S. store team has done a great job staying focused on providing a fast and easy customer experience while managing expenses and inventory. Customers are responding to the improvements we’re making to deliver a seamless shopping experience that saves them time and money and that’s exciting to see. In addition, Sam’s Club delivered comp traffic growth of more than 2%. In International, nine of 11 markets posted positive comp sales and five of these markets grew comps by more than 5%. So overall, we’re making progress across the business and feel good about where we are midway through the year. Our strategy is to make every day easier for busy families. To accomplish this, we continue our transformation to become more of a digital enterprise that moves with speed and agility. I’m encouraged by innovation in the business. We’re testing associate delivery of walmart.com orders in a few stores and by the end of the year, we’ll have approximately 100 automated pickup towers in stores across the U.S., where customers can pick up their orders within a matter of minutes. With Easy Reorder on walmart.com, a customer has visibility to their past in-store and online purchases. In a matter of seconds, they can easily repurchase the items they’ve bought most frequently before and save the time it may have taken to make a weekly shopping list. Another example is our integrated back-to-school offering. Our dedicated back-to-school destination on walmart.com enables customers to shop school supply lists for more than a million classrooms across the…

Good morning, and thanks for joining us today. We had a solid first half of the year. We are improving our competitive position with a differentiated offering by giving customers a better experience in our stores and more of what they want online. We are guided by our financial framework to deliver strong, efficient growth, operate with discipline and allocate capital strategically. We are making progress on each element, and it’s through this lens that I’ll discuss our results. Second quarter adjusted EPS of $1.08 was at the top end of our guidance. Walmart U.S. comp sales increased 1.8%, led by traffic growth of 1.3%. U.S. e-commerce GMV grew 67% and International delivered strong results. Two items significantly impacted EPS for the quarter. There was a $0.17 negative impact related to the premiums paid for bond tenders, which allowed us to retire higher rate debt to reduce interest expense in future periods. We also recorded a gain from the sale of our Suburbia business in Mexico, which benefited EPS by $0.05. It’s also important to remember that during the second quarter of last year, the Company’s EPS was positively impacted by $0.14 related to the gain from the sale of our Yihaodian business in China. Adjusted for these items, EPS increased approximately 1% year-over-year. Gross profit margin decreased 11 basis points during the quarter. Strategic price investments in key markets and the growing mix of our e-commerce business reduced the gross margin rate. The presentation accompanying this transcript includes more details on gross margins for each segment. We continue to make some progress with expenses as we leveraged expenses in our U.S. stores, as well as in the International segment. As a Company, SG&A delevered by 10 basis points in the period, primarily due to increased technology spending and some…

This call includes certain forward-looking statements intended to enjoy the safe harbor protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Such forward-looking statements relate to management’s guidance and forecasts as to, and expectations for Walmart’s earnings per share for the three months ending October 31, 2017. Adjusted earnings per share for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2018, comparable store and club sales for the Walmart U.S. and Sam’s Club segments, excluding fuel for the 13-week period ending October 27, 2017, levering expenses for the year ending January 31, 2018, the impact of currency exchange rates on our earnings per share, and the number of training academies we expect to have open by year-end. Assumptions on which any guidance or forecasts are based are considered forward-looking statements. Walmart’s actual results may differ materially from the guidance provided, or the goals, expectations or forecasts discussed, in such forward-looking statements as a result of changes in facts, assumptions not being realized or other risks, uncertainties and factors, including: economic, geo-political, capital markets and business conditions, trends and events around the world and in the markets in which Walmart operates; currency exchange rate fluctuations, changes in market interest rates and commodity prices; unemployment levels; competitive pressures; inflation or deflation, generally and in particular product categories; consumer confidence, disposable income, credit availability, spending levels, shopping patterns, debt levels and demand for certain merchandise; consumer enrollment in health and drug insurance programs and such programs' reimbursement rates; the amount of Walmart's net sales denominated in the U.S. dollar and various foreign currencies; the financial performance of Walmart and each of its segments; the impact of acquisitions, divestitures and store and club closures; Walmart's ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses, including in the e-commerce space; Walmart's effective tax rate and the factors…