Opening View: Wal-Mart Tops Sales Forecast, ADC Telecom Reports Earnings

Turning to equities, Verizon Communications' (VZ: sentiment, chart, options) wireless arm, Verizon Wireless, is reportedly in talks to acquire privately held Alltel, the fifth-biggest wireless-phone company in the U.S. in terms of customers. According to reports, Verizon could pay as much as $27 billion, slightly less than what the company was taken private for last year. Alltel uses the same network technology as Verizon, and serves more than 13 million customers, mostly in less densely populated areas in the middle of the country.

Also in the telecom sector, ADC Telecommunications (ADCT: sentiment, chart, options) reported a second-quarter profit from continuing operations of $16.5 million, or 14 cents per share, on $403.4 million in sales. Excluding one-time items, ADCT would have earned 39 cents per share, topping analyst estimates for 32 cents per share on $384.4 million in sales. The telecom company also raised its full-year sales outlook to between $1.52 billion and $1.54 billion from its earlier forecast of $1.48 billion to $1.51 billion.

In retail, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT: sentiment, chart, options) said May same-store sales rose 3.9%, not including fuel sales. The figure beat the consensus estimate for a rise of 1.6%. Including fuel, WMT's May same-store sales rose 4.4%. Total sales rose 9.8% to $31.04 billion. Wal-Mart said it sees June U.S. same-store sales ex-fuel up 2%-4%. "Comparable store sales in the Wal-Mart U.S. segment during the four-week May period were strong in grocery, health and wellness and entertainment," the company said.

Finally, Delta Air Lines (DAL: sentiment, chart, options) said its May traffic rose 4.2% to 10.51 billion revenue passenger miles (or miles flown by 1 paying passenger) from last year. Capacity for May increased 1.5% to 12.67 billion available seat miles. Load factor, or the percentage of seats filled with passengers, in May rose to 82.9% from 80.9% a year ago.

Opening View: Wal-Mart Tops Sales Forecast, ADC Telecom Reports Earnings