Consumer spending, meanwhile, rose 0.4percentt in June, the Commerce Department reported, surpassing the consensus of economists' expectations of 0.3percentt, which would have matched the increase in May.
The consensus of earnings expectations among analysts for next year, she said, has declined from $1.43 a share to a more realistic 83 cents a share.
Numis analysts said: Underlying earnings before interest and tax of $344m represented growth of 10% and was marginally ahead of consensus expectations of around $331m (Bloomberg).
Revenue for the quarter rose to $3.68 billion from $2.35 billion but fell short of consensus expectations of $3.74 billion.
It said that as a result it expected its net income for 2007 to be 600 million euros ($883.5 million) to 800 million euros ($1.2 billion), a fraction of consensus expectations of 5.3 billion euros ($7.8 billion).
This was well ahead of analysts' consensus expectations of ebitda of about £115m.
By division, Argos EBIT of £83.1m was around 5% ahead of consensus expectations owing to better opex while Homebase EBIT of £23.5m missed consensus expectations of £28m.
The company forecast sales of $6.8 billion for the second quarter and earnings per share of 94 cents, below analysts' consensus expectation of earnings of $1.09 per share on sales of $7.0 billion.
"Subject to the continuation of a positive performance, we now anticipate that the headline profit before tax for the current year will be approximately 10% ahead of the current consensus market expectations of around £110m".
Schwab officials also said the company would earn 8 cents a share in the first quarter, 3 cents short of the consensus expectations of analysts, according to Thomson Financial/First Call.
