As with many other housing-related stocks, the optimistic view on Home Depot is that the current weakness in the housing and home improvement market is temporary and caused by relatively high interest rates, which will come down soon enough. As such, Home Depot's earnings are depressed in 2024 and will bounce back in line with an eventual recovery.

At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

US home improvement retailer The Home Depot has announced a 7% decrease in net earnings for the first quarter (Q1) of the fiscal year 2024 (FY 2024), reporting $3.60bn compared to $3.87bn in Q1 FY 2023.

The Home Depot Inc. HD has reported first-quarter fiscal 2024 results, wherein earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate, while sales missed. Meanwhile, the company’s top and bottom lines declined year over year in the first quarter of fiscal 2024.

Home Depot (NYSE: HD) issued a mixed Q1 report offering little reason to buy or sell the stock. On the one hand, weaker-than-expected revenue and tepid guidance suggest growth will be hard to come by this year.