The wireless mobile phone service is a highly lucrative business. Now the competition is heating up with the expansion of service from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) service.

Walmart will offer prepaid mobile phone service for $30 for 1,000 minutes and $45 for unlimited calling. Walmart will expand service to 3,200 stores from 234. Response to the initial launch was "overwhelming," said Walmart.

"Wal Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT), the world's largest retailer, with $405 billion in revenues last year, has remained remarkably strong during the recession even as other retailers have floundered," says Stephen Leeb.

In his The Complete Investor, he explains, " Its low prices have lured more customers, while its product line-up emphasizes items seldom cut from consumer budgets, such as food and health care products." Here's his review.

"Its Wal-Mart stores draw an estimated 100 million people a week, explaining why the company dominates the U.S. supermarket industry, with a better than 25% market share. The company also sells under numerous other names, including Sam's Club.

In early 2008, Toby Smith forecast a shift among consumers towards discount retailers; in ChangeWave Investing, he still looks to Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Fred's (NASDAQ: FRED) as the best way to participate in this ongoing trend.

"Consumers are worried about their jobs and about trying to build savings, so the last thing they are apt to do is spend frivolously.

"Early in 2008, our ChangeWave Alliance accurately picked up a major transformational shift in retailing as consumers began to increase spending at discounters. That shift became even more dramatic, as the economic downturn worsened in Q4 2008.

"If you're going to stay invested, you should look to defensive sectors," explain Ron Rowland and Brandon Clay, who point to consumer staples as a top pick for the current market environment.

In their Invest with an Edge, the advisors explain, "Perhaps the best way to stay defensive is with the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLP), an exchange traded fund.

"In a bear market, opportunities are usually limited to certain sectors. Surveying the investment horizon, we think the consumer staples sector has the best opportunity for growth in this economy.

"Regardless how the economy acts, people still eat. Consumers may not shop at Whole Foods, but they'll still buy groceries. Companies like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Safeway (NYSE: SWY) will continue to rake in revenues from hungry customers.

"In addition, these companies should continue to receive additional revenue from consumers who normally shop at specialty stores, but can no longer afford to.

"Consumers may not be shopping at Sharper Image any more, but there are other creature comforts that will be difficult for Americans to abandon.

"Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) will still sell products during a prolonged downturn. In addition, companies providing toiletries and convenience like Procter and Gamble and CVS Pharmacy stand to do well during a shifty economy.

Retailer Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) joined the earnings parade this morning when it reported its first quarter numbers. Despite a 7.5% drop in net income, the company was still able to come in above Wall Street estimates.

Going into today's earnings report, analysts had been looking for earnings for the quarter of 71 cents per share, and the company actually was able to post earnings of 74 cents a share, on net income of $602 million. During the same period last year, the company was able to show net income of $651 million.

Revenues came in slightly under analyst estimates, with a reported $14.8 billion, compared to Wall Street's expectations for $14.92 billion. Same store sales were down by 0.7% in the quarter, but revenue was actually higher by 5.4% as the company's new stores were able to overshadow the decrease in revenue that the company witnessed in its stores open more than a year.

Monday, May 12

• Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 8:00am.
• W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE: GWW) to hold sales conference call at 8:00am.
• XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) to report quarterly earnings; the conference call is at 10:00am for XM and at 4:30pm for Sirius.

Tuesday, May 13

• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 7:30am.
• Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE: TOL) to report preliminary Q2 results and outlook at 2pm.
• Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 4:30pm.

Wednesday, May 14

• FCC Open Commission Meeting at 9:30am.
• SEC Open Commission Meeting at 10:00am.
• Macy's, Inc. (NYSE: M) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 10:30am.
• Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: A) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 4:30pm.

Monday, May 5

• Happy Cinco de Mayo!
• Day one of the two-day FDA Anesthetic/Life Support Drugs & Drug Safety/Risk Management Advisory Committees meeting: Purdue Pharma's NDA for Oxycontin.
  
• Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:APC) to report Q1 earnings; conference call Tuesday at 10:00am.

Tuesday, May 6

• Day two of the two-day FDA Anesthetic/Life Support Drugs & Drug Safety/Risk Mgmt Advisory Committees meeting: Cephalon's (NASDAQ:CEPH) sNDA for Fentora.
• Molson Coors (NYSE:TAP) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 12:00pm.
• Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 4:30pm.

Wednesday, May 7

• Marsh & McLennan (NYSE:MMC) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 8:30am.
• Transocean (NYSE:RIG) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 10:00am.
• Hot Topic (NASDAQ:HOTT) and Zumiez (NASDAQ:ZUMZ) to report April sales at 4:00pm.

Thursday, May 8

• Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) to report April sales at 8:00am. Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) to report sales at 8:15am. Target (NYSE:TGT) to report sales at 8:30am.
  
• NVidia (NADAQ:NVDA) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.

Friday, May 9

• PDUFA date for Adolor Corp (NYSE:ADLR) and GlaxoSmithKline's (NYSE:GSK) Entereg for management of Post-operative Ileus.
• American International Group (NYSE:AIG) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 8:30am.
• Sotheby's (NYSE:BID) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: ComScore, Duke Realty, Nordstrom and Sun Healthcare were among today's noteworthy upgrades:

• ComScore (NASDAQ: SCOR) was upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer to reflect the strong Q1 report and strong customer additions.
  
• Duke Realty (NYSE: DRE) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia upgraded based on valuation.
  
• Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  
• Sun Healthcare (NASDAQ: SUNH) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Friedman Billings based on valuation and notes the Medicare rate cuts will be as drastic as feared.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• MedAssets (NASDAQ: MDAS) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Piper, which thinks the company's acquisition of Accuro will strengthen its revenue cycle management offering, and the firm believes the tight credit markets make the company's MedAssets a compelling product in the short-term. In addition, Piper notes that the company has recently had success with large hospital systems.
  
• Jones Apparel (NYSE: JNY) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill citing sales expectations for the l.e.i. brand at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and margin improvements from leaner inventories.
  
• Affiliated Computer (NYSE: ACS) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies based on valuation and expectations for better bookings.

Reports that Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s (NYSE: WMT) Sam's Club and Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ:CSCO) were placing limits on the amount of staples such as rice and flour that customers can purchase have left me stunned. It makes me think of the food rationing that went during World War II.

Food inflation is getting out of control. Prices for everything from cereal to pastries have jumped. Pizza shop owners are getting squeezed by soaring costs for milk, flour and cheese. Rice prices alone have soared 68 percent since the start of the year, according to Reuters. Think of that the next time you order takeout from your favorite Chinese restaurant. No wonder demand for Food Stamps is at a record.

"Value stocks are those whose prices are relatively low compared to their fundamental value, as measured by factors such as earnings and net worth," notes Mark Hulbert.

"Value stocks can be considered all-season stocks, as history shows that they can perform well in both up and down markets." Here, the editor of The Hulbert Financial Digest also offers a list of value stocks that recommended by the most advisors who have also beaten the broad market over the last decade on a risk-adjusted basis.

"Value stocks are to be distinguished from so-called growth stocks, which have relatively high price-to-earnings and price-to-book ratios.

"Consider first how value stocks perform during bear markets. Believe it or not, they on average actually tend to make money. It's not only that they lose less money than the overall market, they actually gain.

"Take the 2000-2002 bear market, for example, during which the overall stock market declined by 48.6% (as measured by the dividend-adjusted version of the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index (97199001:Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index

"In contrast, according to data compiled by University of Chicago finance professor Eugene Fama and Dartmouth University finance professor Kenneth French, the average value stock over this time gained over 80%.

"Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) delivers amid the recent retail meltdown," says Richard Moroney, editior of Dow Theory Forecast, a blue chip service that has been published for over 50 years.

The advisor adds, "The company stands to benefit as cost-conscious shoppers shift away from convenience in favor of value." Here is his review of the stock, which earns his "long-term buy" rating.

"As evidence of strain on the U.S. consumer mounts, Wal-Mart Stores continues to post solid results.The nation's biggest retailer delivered U.S. same-store-sales growth of 2.4% excluding gasoline sales in December, while rival Target (NYSE: TGT) saw same-store sales fall 5% and other discounters and department stores also delivered bad news.

"With decent operating momentum and solid long-term growth prospects, Wal-Mart shares seem reasonably valued at 14 times the consensus profit estimate for the year ending January 2009. Meanwhile, the company is getting bigger and better.

Welcome to the 26th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart. Last week we wondered whether Always Low Prices was just a myth in today's competitive climate.

This past week, I discussed Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) Stores, Inc.'s entry into the non-protected digital music file download business. With the retailer selling non-protected songs from its website for a maximum of $0.94, will this action dent into Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes market share? Who knows at this point.

Wal-Mart has been in the news quite a bit this past week in regards to a European competitor entering a market Wal-Mart is already in (just not in a big way) -- California. Tesco (LSE: TSCO) said it will be opening smaller-concept stores soon that feature the opposite of the big-box retail feeling of the standard 100,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter. Tesco's stores will average about 10,000 square feet. What will Wal-Mart do in response?

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) cannot get some of its hottest new products to market. According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), the company is trying to diversify away from selling PCs to businesses and pick up a larger sales footprint in the consumer market. New models with spiffy paint jobs and pricing set for students on their way to school have been central to the plans.

The trouble is that delays in parts and bad paint jobs are murdering the program. The Journal writes that "Dell has attempted to quell the mounting frustration over delays by addressing the issue in its company blog." How that will help mollify frustrated customers is a unclear. It may just make them more angry.

The move must be a bit humiliating for Dell. The company had customer service problem three years ago when it began to outsource the function to call centers in India. Dell had to bring in a customer czar to try to solve the problems. The company is selling its new PC in retail outlets including Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) which is a departure from its old "direct to customer" sales channel.

But, Wal-Mart can only sell what it gets.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Whole wheat flour, water, corn syrup, metal shards? Consumer products giant Sara Lee (NYSE: SLE) has announced a voluntary recall for whole wheat bread sold in the deep South that may contain metal pieces.

The suspect loaves were made at its bakery in Meridian, Miss., where Sara Lee workers this week discovered that a wheat flour sifter was damaged. Sara Lee issued the precautionary recall, concerned that metal from the sifter may have gotten into the loaves.

Sara Lee said the bread was sold throughout Mississippi and Alabama, and parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana and the Florida panhandle.

In addition to its Sara Lee brands, affected brands included Earthgrains, Flavorite, Golden Bake, Grissom's, Shurfresh, and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT)'s Great Value brand, as well as store brands at regional groceries Foodland, Schnucks, IGA, Piggly-Wiggly and Publix (OTC: PUSH).

Shares of Sara Lee traded narrowly between $16.04 and $16.22 today, sitting 3 cents under at $16.15 shortly after 3 p.m.

July short interest in Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) rose almost 30 million shares to 46.3 million. Based on the trend in the company's share price, it was probably a good gamble. The company's shares are down almost 5% this year.

The sentiment against Best Buy has galvanized around whether the company can survive challenges from Costco (NASDAQ: COST) and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) Wal-Mart attributed much of its June sales improvement to consumer electronics sales and its reselling agreement with Dell (NASDAQ: DELL).

With PC sales rebounding in Q2 based on figures from IDC and Gartner, the question is who will benefit. Clearly it helps the PC manufacturers, but the outlets that sell them should prosper as well.

With big box retailers trying to recover their luster as attractive destinations for consumers, marketing tech gear at a discount is a way to market high-ticket items that have much larger average prices than clothes and food. There is every reason for Wal-Mart to push consumer electronics sales and use its buying power to drive up margins on the category.

Best Buy, with far fewer customers and less leverage, is getting squeezed.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.