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The company, which had been slashing inventory for four straight years, is now buying more merchandise. Inventory was up 12 percent as of the end of the first quarter and is expected to be up in the low double digit percentages in the second quarter. Still, company officials told investors that inventory is 30 percent below 2005′s level.

NEW YORK – After posting a 40 percent increase in net American eagle  income for its first quarter, clothing retailer Gap Inc. is staking a claim in key categories like black pants for the fall as it aims to get its customers to spend more.

Fueled by its turnaround in the U.S., the company is in a American eagle  strong position to expand overseas and online, he said.

Gap, which operates the Old Navy and Banana Republic chains as well as Gap stores, said it earned $302 million, or 45 cents per share, for the three-month period that ended May 1. That compares with $215 million, or 31 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue at its Old Navy stores in North American that have been open at least a year rose 7 percent, as the chain’s return to its target market of frugal moms is paying off.

The figure rose 5 percent for Banana Republic stores in North America, and 2 percent for Gap’s North American business. The company’s international business was unchanged from a year earlier.

During a conference call with investors after releasing its earnings report, Chairman and CEO Glenn Murphy gave a cautious thumbs-up as a key measure of revenue rose at all Gap’s brands for the first quarter.

Analysts had projected $1.83 per share.

Gap now expects to earn $1.77 to $1.82 per American eagle  share for its fiscal year, up from previous guidance of $1.70 to $1.75.

Led by low-price Old Navy, the company’s revenue at stores open at least a year rose 4 percent for the quarter. The figure is based is a key indicator of a retailer’s health because it excludes the effects of expansion and stores closing.

Gap’s quarterly revenue rose 6.4 percent to $3.33 billion.

Excluding a one-time tax gain, Gap earned 43 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who typically exclude one-time items, on average expected net income of 43 cents per share on revenue of $3.31 billion.

The company raised its profit forecast for the full year, but it was below analysts’ forecasts.

"It is still a very volatile consumer environment," Murphy said. For instance, he said, the company can’t discern spending patterns for weekends or weekdays, when they used to be distinct.

Old Navy, which had lost market share for five years ending in 2008, has been remodeling its stores to make them easier to shop. By the end of its second quarter, Old Navy plans to remodel 200 stores, one quarter of the division’s fleet.

Gap announced in February that it plans to open its first Gap stores in China and Italy and expand Banana Republic in Europe. It also aims to offer e-commerce for customers in Canada, the United Kingdom and nine other countries in Europe.

They said Gap is being prudent but making sure it doesn’t sell out its hottest items too fast as it did last fall when it ran out of smaller sizes during the relaunch of its denim collection, Murphy said.

Its shares fell 43 cents, or 2 percent, after hours to $21.31.American eagle   During regular trading Thursday, they fell 60 cents, or 2.7 percent, to close at $21.74 as the overall market tumbled.

Wal-Mart, which generates more than $400 billion in sales annually, is considered a key barometer of consumer spending. The retailer’s latest figures show that its shoppers are actually showing even more financial strain, with sales across many discretionary categories including clothing, home furnishing and entertainment disappointing. Wal-Mart officials said high unemployment and rising gas prices were the biggest factors depressing sales and traffic.

Chief rival Target Corp., whose business has perked up as it expanded its food offerings and increasingly marketed its low prices, is expected to announce first-quarter results Wednesday. It posted a 2.8 percent increase in revenue at stores open at least a year for the most recent quarter.

Wal-Mart posted net income of $3.32 billion, or 88 cents per share, for the period ended April 30. Revenue rose almost 6 percent to $99.85 billion, from $94.24 billion.

The squeeze hasn’t hurt its profits. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. posted a 10 percent increase in first-quarter net income Tuesday, but that was driven by cost-cutting and growth overseas.

Schoewe said it’s too early to tell whether price cuts, which began in April, have attracted customers.

A key measure of revenue dropped for the fourth consecutive quarter as Wal-Mart’s namesake stores saw people shopping less or defecting to rivals such as Target or dollar stores, which have heightened their discounting pitch.

Wal-Mart also offered a muted outlook for the second quarter. Still, its shares rose more than 2 percent, or $1.29, to $53.99 after its results beat Wall Street expectations.

"It’s bad enough that Wal-Mart guided lower, but what it had to say about spending trends had the frugality label all over it," David Rosenberg, economist at investment firm Gluskin Sheff, wrote in a research note.

Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of Wal-Mart who Lacoste oversess its U.S. namesake business, cited a 2 percentage point difference in revenue at stores open at least a year in areas with the lowest and highest unemployment rates.

"Wal-Mart’s customers are finding new stores to shop," said analyst Brian Sozzi with Wall Street Strategies, noting expanding merchandise offerings at dollar stores.

Wal-Mart Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe acknowledged it’s possible it lost some wealthier customers. That leaves the retailer more exposed to the most vulnerable consumer group.

With lackluster sales in the U.S., Wal-Mart is increasingly focusing on its international business, which posted a 21.4 percent revenue increase for the quarter, fueled by strong businesses in China, Brazil and Mexico. More than 60 percent of additional square footage was from business overseas during the latest quarter. International revenue accounted for about 25 percent of the company’s total.

Wal-Mart expects earnings per share in the range of 93 cents to 98 cents per share for the second quarter, mostly below the 98 cents expected by Wall Street.

Company officials also acknowleged Wal-Mart’s own stumbles — not keeping up with rivals’ price-cutting and reducing the number of products in its stores too deeply.

The number of customers on food stamps increased significantly during the first quarter. And Wal-Mart saw more pronounced swings in spending days around payday that it had ever seen before — a marked and more prolonged drop in spending in the days before paychecks arrive before splurging around payday, Schoewe noted.

Wal-Mart said it expects revenue at stores open at least a year for its U.S. namesake business to be anywhere from down 2 percent to up 1 percent in the current quarter. The company’s warehouse operation Sam’s Club expects the figure to be flat.

Analysts reason that as shoppers with jobs and money feel Lacoste more confident, some are going back to the malls for a better shopping experience even though Wal-Mart has improved customer service and cleaned up stores.

Wal-Mart’s 1.1 percent drop in revenue at stores open at least a year is in stark contrast to results from other retailers in recent days, including Home Depot, Lowe’s Corp. and T.J. Maxx’s parent, which reported rising sales as shoppers spend more on goods from riding mowers to shoes. The figure, which excludes revenue from fuel, was also worse than the 0.6 percent decline Wall Street expected.

U.S. Walmart stores are seeing fewer customers. To win them back, Wal-Mart announced another round of price cuts on groceries Tuesday and said it’s scrambling to restock some products it eliminated over the past year as part of its campaign to declutter stores.

Wealthier customers who turned to the world’s largest retailer during the Great Recession appear to be trading back up, and stubbornly high unemployment and gas prices are still squeezing its main customers, who are having more trouble stretching their dollars to the Lacoste next payday.

"The economy is coming back, but (Wal-Mart is) not capturing their share," said Craig Johnson, president of retail consultancy Customer Growth Partners.

NEW YORK – The recovering U.S. economy may be a mixed blessing for Wal-Mart.

The woman and her partner filled out both their names during the application process — which asked for the names of "parents" rather than mother and father — and attended an open house together at the school in February.

BOSTON – A Roman Catholic school has withdrawn its Levis acceptance of an 8-year-old boy with lesbian parents, saying their relationship was "in discord" with church teachings, according to one of the boys’ mothers.

 .

Rafferty and Duggan did not respond to requests for comment.

The case mirrors a situation in Boulder, Colo., in which the Sacred Heart of Jesus school said two children of lesbian parents could not re-enroll because of their parents’ sexual orientation. The Denver Archdiocese posted a statement in support of the school’s decision.

Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage, in 2004, and the Catholic Church strongly opposed the decision. The woman, who is not married to her partner, said she didn’t expect the church to approve of her relationship but didn’t think it should affect her son’s education.

In Hingham, the woman said she and her partner don’t regularly attend church but are Christian and wanted their son to have a strong education that also emphasized Christian values, such as compassion and empathy. They also found the size of the small K-8 school appealing and saw it as entry into a strong Catholic schooling tradition that extends through college.

"We weren’t hiding," she said.

She said Duggan told her teachers wouldn’t be prepared to answer questions her son might have because the school’s teachings about marriage conflict with what he sees in his family.

The Massachusetts woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about the effect of publicity on her son, said she planned to send the Levis boy to third grade at St. Paul Elementary School in Hingham in the fall. But she said she learned her son’s acceptance was rescinded during a conference call Monday with Principal Cynthia Duggan and the parish priest, the Rev. James Rafferty.

"I’m accustomed to discrimination, I suppose, at my age and my experience as a gay woman," the mother said. "But I didn’t expect it against my child."

Donilon said the archdiocese does not have a policy Levis prohibiting the children of same-sex couples from attending its schools.

"I think overall, it’s a missed opportunity," she said.

They paid their deposit and got uniform order forms, and last week the woman visited Rafferty to discuss their son’s religious education. At that meeting, Rafferty started asking questions about her relationship with her partner, the woman said. A few days later, he and Duggan called with the decision.

The church’s stance against homosexual relationships was no shock, but the woman said she didn’t think it was a deal-breaker, given the church’s "many variations of tolerance," such as its inclusion of families of divorce, which the church doesn’t recognize.

___

Her son will likely be back in public school next year, Levis since it may be too late to get into another private school, she said.

Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese, said it learned about the school’s decision late Tuesday. He said the archdiocese is now in "consultation with the pastor and principal to gather more information."

Rafferty said her relationship "was in discord with the teachings of the Catholic Church," which holds marriage is only between a man and woman, the woman said.

Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Family Equality Council, an advocacy group for gay and lesbian parents, said as gay and lesbian families become more common more families are running into private schools that refuse to enroll their children based on parents’ sexual orientation.

"There are many different non-traditional families that fall under the umbrella of the Catholic Church, and I guess we assumed we would fall under one of those," she said.

Gay rights groups later took out full-page newspaper ads in protest.

It’s at least the second time in recent months that students have not been allowed to attend a U.S. Catholic school because of their parents’ sexual orientation, with the other instance occurring in Colorado.

In 2004, a lesbian couple in Eugene, Ore., filed a lawsuit against a Catholic elementary school after officials there declined to admit their daughter. Their lawyer said the refusal violated Eugene’s city code, which forbids discrimination based on sex, marital status, domestic partnership status or sexual orientation.

"It’s, unfortunately, legal, but there’s no question that it’s wrong," Chrisler said. "It’s sad that any school would deny a child an education because of who their parents are."

Meanwhile, in California some Catholic schools have allowed children of openly gay parents to enroll. For example, in 2005 officials at St. John the Baptist School in Costa Mesa agreed to keep in the school two adopted sons of a gay couple. But the case drew an angry response from some parents and forced the school to later draw up new admission guidelines.

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GUIDANCE: The company, which boosted its Red Monkey annual guidance last month, did not increase its outlook further, citing economic uncertainty.

REVENUE: Revenue rose to $5.57 billion, up from $5.19 billion.

NET INCOME: Macy’s reported net income of $23 million, or 5 cents per share, for the period ending May 1. That compares with a loss of $88 million, or 21 cents per share, in the same period last year.

GROSS PROFIT MARGIN: The company had a gross Red Monkey profit margin of 39.4 percent in the first quarter, up from 38.1 percent.

Macy’s Inc. returned to profitability in the first quarter as Juicy Couture belts Red Monkey its efforts to tailor its merchandise to local markets help drive better-than-expected sales. Here’s a breakdown of what happened in the quarter and guidance for the year:

NET CASH: Net cash from operating activities Juicy Couture belts was $149 million in the first quarter, compared with $3 million. The latest quarter includes a contribution to the company’s pension plan of $325 million in the first quarter, compared with $30 million in last year’s quarter.