Good morning and thank you for joining us to review Walmart’s First Quarter Fiscal 2018 Results. This is Steve Schmitt, Vice President of Investor Relations at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. The date of this call is May 18, 2017. On today's call, you will hear from Doug McMillon, President and CEO and 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, interactive earnings site and other materials are available on the Investors’ portion of our corporate Web site stock.walmart.com. For our U.S. comp sales reporting in fiscal 2018, we utilize a 52-week calendar. Our Q1 reporting period ran from Saturday, January 28, 2017 through Friday, April 28, 2017. Before we get started, I’d like to remind you of a few upcoming dates. Our Annual Shareholders’ Meeting will be held Friday, June 2 on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville. This meeting starts at 8 A.M. Central Time and is also available for viewing via webcast through our Web site, stock.walmart.com or via Walmart’s Investor Relations app. We will release second quarter earnings on Thursday, August 17. Also, please save the date for our Investment Community Meeting, which will be held in Northwest Arkansas on October 9 and 10. Now, I'd like to turn it over to Walmart’s CEO, Doug McMillon.

Good morning, everyone. As you may have seen this morning, we delivered a solid first quarter and we’re encouraged with our start to the year. From my view, I’d say that Walmart U.S. highlights were the 1.5% growth in comp traffic, comp store inventory being down over 7%, improved expense performance in our stores versus last year and the acceleration of e-commerce GMV growth to 69%.There were some other highlights outside the Walmart U.S. business that we’ll touch on later. Inside the Company, we can see that we’re moving faster to combine our digital and physical assets to make shopping easier and more enjoyable for customers, but we can also see plenty of room to improve. We need to scale our e-commerce business further and see some additional strength in our store comps to deliver the results we know we’re capable of, so that’s what we’re focused on. I’m really encouraged by how our store and club associates are embracing change. We’re creating new solutions to help us run the business better in addition to creating a better experience for the customer in stores and online. Let me give you a few examples. A few weeks ago while visiting stores in Oklahoma City I saw first-hand how the combination of some new in-store apps and mobile handhelds are improving our in-store processes and making life easier for associates. A grocery department manager in one store showed us how she now ensures side counter modular accuracy and in-stock with a new app we’ve developed for our mobile handhelds. With this new app, the time to complete her work has now been reduced, improving her productivity and giving her more time to interact with customers. I saw it again last week in Omaha, Nebraska. I saw another example in Canada in April.…

Good morning, and thanks for joining us today. As I’ve been saying over the past few quarters, this an exciting time to be at Walmart, and we are delivering solid results. In the U.S., important initiatives are underway both to accelerate growth in e-commerce and drive traffic to our stores. Most of our key international markets continue to perform well, and top-line performance at Sam’s Club remains solid. On today’s call I’m going to cover our consolidated results from the first quarter, talk about e-commerce in the U.S. and then provide details on our operating segments. We will discuss the consolidated results in the context of our financial framework of strong, efficient growth, operating discipline, and strategic capital allocation. Let’s start with our consolidated results. EPS was $1, which is at the top end of our guidance of $0.90 to $1 and 2% higher than last year. This marks the first quarterly EPS increase in more than two years on an underlying basis. On a constant currency basis, total revenue increased 2.5% to $118.8 billion as we saw solid top-line performance across the business. Walmart U.S. continued its momentum with comps of 1.4%, while Sam’s Club posted comp sales, without fuel, of 1.6%. In Walmart International, 7 of our 11 markets reported positive comps, even as the timing of Easter and last year’s Leap Day negatively impacted results. The U.S. e-commerce GMV growth accelerated significantly, up approximately 69%. Through the lens of strong, efficient growth, I’m pleased with the results. Gross profit margin increased 1 basis point during the quarter. The rate for Walmart U.S. was flat, while Walmart International was up slightly. In regard to operating discipline, while we didn’t leverage expenses on a consolidated level primarily due to investments in e-commerce and technology, I’m pleased that we leveraged…

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 July 31, 2017, comparable store and club sales for the Walmart U.S. and Sam’s Club segments, excluding fuel, for the thirteen week period ending July 28, 2017, the net earnings per share benefit of the sale of Suburbia business in the three months ending July 31, 2017, the financial impact of the Suburbia and Yihaodian divestitures in the year ending January 31,2018, levering expenses for the year ending January 31, 2018, the level of future organic growth, and new product offerings at Sam’s Club. 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; Walmart's ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses, including in the e-commerce space; Walmart's effective tax rate…