So, here we virtually are at the Lehman Brothers ninth annual retail seminar, where Wal-Mart Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe will be presenting today. What will he have to say? With Wal-Mart having a 6.8% same-store sales growth figure for April, perhaps there are a few shining nuggets about to drop. Stay tuned to this post for minute-by-minute updates to his presentation, and we'll try to get as much skinny and straight dope as we can (hey, that sounds like a new midnight sitcom, but we digress).

Setup: the Lehman Brothers Retail Seminar -- hosted in NYC -- is a showcase where global retailers -- of many sizes and representing many industries -- present the state of their respective retail merchandising efforts, in a nutshell. When a retailer like Wal-Mart presents at a seminar like this, entire countries listen: call it a side effect of the Wal-Mart Economy, with or without a next-morning market hangover. The times below are in Eastern Standard Time (EST).

Remember, keep your browser glued to this page for constant updates, and keep the refresh button handy. With that said, let's roll:

12:20pm: We're waiting patiently for Wal-Mart CFO Tom Schoewe to take center (virtual) stage -- already, the webcast is behind schedule (egad, no!)

12:25pm: [twiddles thumbs while still waiting for webcast to start]

12:30pm: apparently, someone is asleep at the wheel...maybe WMT is out of stock on bandwidth?







12:32pm: starting, finally!