As more major retailers post earnings, one theme is clear: Value players are winning both the wealthy and the cash-strapped.

Walmart and TJX, T.J. Maxx’s parent company, stood apart from the pack this week by hiking their full-year forecasts and expressing optimism about the start of the holiday season. Both said sales have grown as they win shoppers across the income spectrum, in the same week other major U.S. retailers Home Depot, Lowe’s and Target cut their profit outlooks and said they saw consumer reluctance to make large purchases.

In an interview with CNBC, Walmart CFO John David Rainey said the big-box retailer has seen “value-seeking and choiceful” spending patterns by consumers for the past several quarters. He said “it stands to reason, if there’s a little incremental strain on the consumer, they’re only going to become more so, they’re going to look for more value.”

And TJX CEO Ernie Herrman said the company, which includes Marshalls and Home Goods, has seen a “strong start” to the holiday quarter and is “convinced that consumers will continue to seek out value.”

Shares of both Walmart and TJX rose on Thursday, even as the three major U.S. stock indexes turned negative.

The performance of the two retailers, which are both strongly associated with compelling deals, jumps out at a moment when investors, industry watchers and economists are trying to predict retail sales during the critical holiday season and the outlook for the U.S. economy next year. Their performance could bode well for other off-price chains, such as Ross and Burlington, and value-focused players, including Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Five Below and Costco, which will report their most recent earnings in the coming weeks.

In recent months, a mix of factors have made it difficult to gauge how retailers and the broader economy will fare in the months ahead. That includes jitters about the job market following major layoffs at companies including Amazon, Verizon, UPS and Target, and concerns that the stock market has been propped up by artificial intelligence companies, contributing to the risk of an bubble. A prolonged government shutdown also muddied the waters by delaying the release of recent jobs and inflation data.

There have also been contradictions between what consumers say and do. Consumer sentiment has tumbled to nearly the lowest level ever, even as retail sales grew stronger in October, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor.

That’s led to murky holiday expectations. For example, the National Retail Federation predicted that holiday sales will grow by 3.7% to 4.2% year over year and top $1 trillion for the first time, while consulting firm PwC said consumers plan to cut their holiday spending average by 5% compared to the year-ago holiday season.

Home Depot, Lowe’s and Target put their thumbs on the scale this week. All three lowered their…

The CEO of TJX Companies said on Wednesday the holiday shopping season is off to a “strong start” as the discounter behind TJ Maxx, Home Goods and Marshalls issued fiscal third-quarter results that beat expectations on the top and bottom lines.

“The availability of merchandise continues to be outstanding, and we are excited about the deals we are seeing in the marketplace,” CEO Ernie Herrman said in a news release. He said the company’s brands are “strongly positioned as gifting destinations for value-conscious shoppers this holiday season.”

Still, the retailer’s holiday guidance fell short of Wall Street’s expectations. Assuming current tariff levels stay in effect, the company is expecting comparable sales to rise between 2% and 3% in its current quarter, shy of expectations of 3.1% growth, according to StreetAccount. TJX is expecting earnings per share to be between $1.33 and $1.36, which is also just below expectations of $1.37, according to LSEG.

Shares rose more than 2% in premarket trading.

Here’s how TJX performed during the quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: $1.28 vs. $1.22 expected
• Revenue: $15.12 billion vs. $14.85 billion expected

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Nov. 1 was $1.44 billion, or $1.28 per share, compared with $1.30 billion, or $1.14 per share, a year earlier.

Sales rose to $15.12 billion, up 7% from $14.06 billion a year earlier.

During the third quarter, comparable sales rose 5%, far ahead of expectations of 3.7% growth, according to StreetAccount.

TJX raised its guidance after the better-than-expected third-quarter results. While guidance for its current quarter was weaker than Wall Street anticipated, its full-year outlook came in stronger.

For fiscal 2026, TJX is now expecting comparable sales to rise 4%, better than the 3.4% growth analysts were expecting, according to StreetAccount. It’s expecting earnings per share to be between $4.63 and $4.66, better than the $4.61 analysts were expecting, according to LSEG.

The off-price retailer has been growing faster than expected in recent years thanks to value-hunting consumers who are still willing to shop for new clothes, but looking for an impressive discount. While uncertain economic times are a challenge for most companies, they tend to help off-price retailers because of a trade down effect from wealthier shoppers.

Even higher tariffs have been seen as a positive for TJX because if they force price increases elsewhere, it’s more reason to shop at an off-price store, the company said previously.

TJX Cos. on Wednesday reported earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street’s expectations and raised its full-year guidance, as the discounter behind T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods said it assumes it can offset higher costs from tariffs.

TJX now expects full-year fiscal 2026 earnings will be between $4.52 and $4.57 per share, up from its prior guidance between $4.34 and $4.43 per share. The retailer also raised its comparable sales expectations to a 3% increase, versus prior guidance of a 2% to 3% rise. The new guidance assumes the U.S. tariff rates currently in place will remain in effect for the rest of the year.

“Customer transactions were up at every division as we saw strong demand at each of our U.S. and international businesses,” said CEO Ernie Herrman in a news release. “With our strong second quarter profit results, we are raising our full-year guidance for both pretax profit margin and earnings per share. The third quarter is off to a strong start, and I am very confident in our position as we enter the second half of the year.”

TJX shares touched an all-time high Wednesday and were trading about 3% higher.

Here’s how TJX did in its fiscal 2026 second quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

• Earnings per share: $1.10 vs. $1.01 expected
• Revenue: $14.40 billion vs. $14.13 billion expected

TJX executives had said in May that the second quarter would include a negative impact from tariff costs from orders it had already committed to when additional duties were announced.

Herrman said on Wednesday’s call with analysts that tariffs were a challenge for TJX in the second quarter, but the costs were lower than the company had expected.

Analysts have said off-price retailers such as T.J. Maxx are better positioned to sidestep major tariff costs in the near term because they purchase excess merchandise from other brands, usually after the items have already been imported into the U.S.

Analysts from UBS and Morgan Stanley said in research notes this month that TJX is poised to take market share away from traditional department stores because of that edge.

Herrman echoed that sentiment on the call, saying that TJX is taking advantage of an industry landscape that has seen store closures and “less exciting execution across the board” in retail brick and mortar. He added that TJX’s flexible business model in pricing and merchandising is a plus as the company operates in an uncertain economy.

TJX doesn’t set prices on its merchandise through a top-down system, Herrman said. Instead, the retailer’s 1,300 buyers set prices on a deal-by-deal and brand-by-brand basis.

“We’ve been navigating in the tariff environment by just staying simple and pure to that model,” Herrman said.

On the merchandising front, Herrman said that TJX customers are aware that they may not…