Home Depot's strong fourth quarter overshadowed by weakening sales and expectations for 2024

Home Depot’s sales continued to weaken in its fiscal fourth quarter, as the country’s largest home improvement retailer deals with Americans who remain concerned about high mortgage rates and inflation

Home Depot's sales continued to fade during the fourth quarter as the country's largest home improvement retailer feels the impact of high mortgage rates and inflation on its customers.

While quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations, the company's sales expectations for this year weighed on shares early.

Shares slipped more than 3% before the opening bell Tuesday. Rival Lowe’s, which reports fourth-quarter earnings next week, fell more than 2%.

Home Depot reported fourth-quarter sales of $34.79 billion, down from $35.83 in the prior-year period. That still beat the $34.55 billion that analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research expected.

Sales at stores open at least a year, a key indicator of a retailer's health, fell 3.5%. In the U.S., same store sales declined 4%.