Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2007 Fortune Global 500, announced on Tuesday that its sales rose 2.4 percent in December in its stores open at least a year across the U.S. The company’s reports beat Wall Street expectations on strong grocery sales.

"In a difficult retail environment, we were pleased with our comparable store sales during this period. Wal-Mart's food performance was very strong, which helped drive traffic to other areas of the stores,” said Eduardo Castro-Wright, head of Wal-Mart's U.S. store division.

The largest retailer in the world also said that while it expects fourth-quarter earnings per share from continuing operations to be right as they forecasted - 99 cents to $1.03 per share – its earnings will be under pressure due to higher interest expense compared with a year ago.

Wall Mart’s sales beat analysts' average forecast for a gain of 2.1 percent, Reuters estimated, and it’s also in within the figures it estimated - 1 percent to 3 percent.

The largest private employer in the world and the fourth largest utility or commercial employer had net sales in five weeks ended Jan. 4 of $46.6 billion, up from $42.99 billion a year ago.

According to the report released by the company, pharmacy and grocery sales continued to increase at a faster pace than sales of higher margin general merchandise.

On the other hand, some other retailers weren’t as successful as Wall Mart. Limited Brands Inc., for example, reported that its sales declined during what may have been the worst holiday season since 2002.

Ann Taylor, Stores Corp., Chico's FAS Inc. and Cato Corp. all had sales under what analysts estimated.