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Home Depot’s revenue climbed in the first quarter as customers spent slightly more as they tackled smaller projects.A number of U.S. companies have lowered or pulled financial guidance for investors as tariffs launched by the the Trump administration scramble world trade but on Tuesday, Home Depot stuck by earlier projections of sales growth at around 2.8%.Shares of the Atlanta company rose more than 3% before the opening bell on Tuesday.Revenue rose to $39.86 billion from $36.42 billion a year earlier, beating the $39.3 billion that analysts polled by FactSet expected.Sales at stores open at least a year, a key gauge of a retailer’s health, edged down 0.3%. In the U.S., comparable store sales climbed 0.2%.Wall Street anticipated a 0.1% decline in same-store sales.Customer transactions rose 2.1% in the quarter. The amount shoppers spent climbed to $90.71 per average ticket from $90.68 in the prior-year period.“Our first quarter results were in line with our expectations as we saw continued customer engagement across smaller projects and in our spring events,” Home Depot Chair and CEO Ted Decker said in a statement on Tuesday.Home improvement retailers like Home Depot have been dealing with homeowners putting off bigger projects because of increased borrowing costs and lingering concerns about inflation.The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows.Sales of previously occupied homes dropped last month as elevated mortgage rates and rising prices discouraged home shoppers.Existing home sales fell 5.9% in March from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million units, the National Association of Realtors said. The March sales decline was the largest monthly drop since November 2022, when sales slid 6.7% from the previous month, and marks the slowest sales pace for the month of March going back to 2009.Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.“One of the central problems for Home Depot is the skittish housing market,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a statement. “While last quarter was robust, home sales declined by 3.1% year-over-year this quarter as consumers were deterred from moving by continued high interest rates and growing economic uncertainty. This lack of recovery makes it difficult to drive home improvement spending.”For the three months ended May 4, Home Depot Inc. earned $3.43 billion, or $3.45 per share. A year earlier the Atlanta-based company earned $3.6 billion, or $3.63 per share.Stripping out certain items, earnings were $3.56 per share. Wall Street was calling for earnings of $3.60 per share. Michelle Chapman, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
Many leaders are struggling right now with how to lead their teams to be productive with so much financial and regulatory uncertainty. Few would blame them. After three years of pouring their hearts and souls into developing vehicle safety technology, Jacobs team suddenly found itself wondering if it was all for nothing. Grants they had already received suddenly had new requirements that were challenging to meet, budgets theyd allocated were frozen by their parent organization fearing a coming recession, and costs for parts were rising so rapidly that profits on existing deals were evaporating. In short, everyone on Jacobs team had reason to worry each time one of these changes came. They also understood that more major changes could be comingand without much notice. These employees knew that it was possible that their projects or current roles might not even continue. Every team member showed signs of being distracted and worried. Jacob recognized that if they took their eye off the ball, they could be even worse off. Work still needed to get donefailing to do so could harm their careers (and the health of the company). Jacob was in a bind: he needed to keep the team productive. But he knew that any project he asked them to focus on could be cut, and any efforts could turn out to be wasted time. He couldnt look into a crystal ball and know his guidance would be right. In my work training and coaching leaders in Fortune 500 organizations and beyond, regardless of the industry, Ive seen leaders often take the wrong steps in highly uncertain timesand end up demotivating the team. What doesnt work is: Optimism Great arguments Big picture vision and purpose Theres a time for those approaches, but leaning on them at the wrong time makes the leader seem out of touch. Imagine a house sitting on a fault line: then comes an earthquake. After the shaking stops, the house is still standingbut the foundation has visible cracks, and the ground beneath has clearly shifted. Would you trust someone who charged in optimistically and with a cheery tone told you the house will be just fine and to head back in? Or would you trust someone who acknowledges that there could be aftershocks, and who agrees that it makes sense to test the structure of the house before going back? Most people would trust the second person more. Theyve acknowledged your reality. They stand a chance of finding out if the house is safe, and if not, what steps are needed to make it so. In highly uncertain times at work, there are psychological earthquakes and aftershocks coming regularly. Each time, no matter how much trust you had built up in the past, because reality has shifted, you need to show you understand the new reality to gain trust again. Motivating teams through tough times Ive also seen leaders get people to perform in tough times. They start by meeting the people on the team where they are mentally and emotionally before trying to coach them. Theyll acknowledge that its stressfuland perhaps even heartbreakingto give so much to your work and then learn it could end up in the trash. Its distracting to believe that your job, or at least your current project or function, might become obsolete. Its natural to wonder whether youll still be valued in the same way. Those leaders ask questions to ensure they really hear the concerns, perspectives, beliefs, and feelings of people on the team. Thats what Jacob did with his team, too, to help them perform and keep adapting as needed. Im here, and I hear you Heres why it matters to do so. When people cant control a situation, they care deeply about whether they can trust the process by which their future will be determined. Research has shown that even when the outcome is outside their control (whether it be a performance review or budget upheaval), if people felt the process was fair, theyre more able to set the past aside and do what needs to be done. A major part of believing they can trust the process is whether they feel the leaders or authorities have heard and seen them. They want to know if the leaders understand their reality. They want to know the leaders get it. Then the process seems more fair. Neuroscience has found that peoples perception of fairness changes when they focus on a process versus an outcomesay, how leadership took a listening tour before making project cuts, rather than the outcome of the cuts themselves. Theres a big difference in how the brain reacts when we evaluate between the two. When we focus on an outcome seeming fair, we primarily use the areas of the brain that correspond to emotions. But when we focus on the process, we use the regions of the brain that relate to social cognition. That means people are thinking about other people involvedand good leaders meet them there. Psychological research has also tested the importance of making people feel heard specifically in times of great uncertainty. In the pandemic, leaders were better able to get emergency personnel to embrace new ways of operating when they took this step. Feeling heard and seen leads people to be ready to accept hardships and move forward. Unconsciously, at least, the team members are trying to answer the questions can I trust the process? and can I trust this person? Zooming out After you meet your employees where they are emotionally by letting them know you hear and see them, your team can begin to trust you and your process more. At that point, it can be very helpful to show your optimism, or give your great arguments, or remind them of the big-picture vision. What leaders need to remember is that in times of great uncertainty, we need to earn the right to lead, coach, and influence every time the ground shifts. Some months that means we need to do it in every conversation or meeting we have with our team members. Let them know you get it. Then they will be more likely to let you lead them in whatever ways you need to. In uncertain times, people are understandably worried, so leaders need to demonstrate each time anew.
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E-Commerce
Shares in major quantum computer companies were on the rise again in premarket trading on Tuesday, highlighting what has been a volatile couple of weeks for a nascent industry that continues to captivate. Here’s what’s driving the latest news: D-Wave announces Advantage2 By far, Palo Alto-based D-Wave Quantum Inc (NYSE: QBTS) is seeing the biggest boost in premarket trading, with its stock up more than 12% as of this writing. This boost follows a 7% increase in D-Wave shares on Monday. Investors are likely excited by news on Tuesday morning in which D-Wave announced the general availability of its sixth-generation Advantage2 quantum computing system, which the company says has a demonstrated ability to solve deeply complex problems that classical computers can’t. “Its what everybody aspired to achieve, and were quite excited about it,” CEO Alan Baratz told Fast Company in March, when the company announced that it had achieved “quantum supremacy” using the Advantage2. Although some researchers have challenged D-Wave’s claims, investors appear to be on board for now. Shares in D-Wave are up 36.84% year to date. Quantum Computing Inc rises, falls, and rises again Hoboken-based Quantum Computing Inc. (Nasdaq: QUBT) has seen some volatility since it released its first-quarter 2025 earnings report last Thursday. The company swung to a profit, reporting net income of $17 million, versus a net loss of $6.4 million last year. Shares surged double digits on Friday after the report, but then fell more than 8% on Monday, possibly due to some profit taking from investors who wanted to lock in their gains. Now, in premarket trading on Tuesday, QUBT is back on the rise again, with the stock up almost 9% as of this writing. Who can keep up? Rigetti Computing Inc: Along for the ride? Shares in Rigetti Computing (Nasdaq: RGTI) were also on the rise in premarket trading Tuesday, up nearly 6% as of this writing. The Berkeley-based company has not announced any news this morning that would impact the share price, so it’s possible that investors are just showing a bit more excitement for the quantum computing space. Experts believe the space has the potential to transform computing as we know it, although debates persist about how far we are from widespread practical uses for quantum computing. It’s worth noting that while all three of the above quantum computing companies are enjoying a rally this week, shares in Quantum Computing Inc. and Rigetti are both down significantly year to date: 36.94% and 39.75% respectively. Only time will tell if these three stocks will continue on their upward path this week and into the future. For now, enjoy the quantum leap.
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E-Commerce
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