American retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. will report earnings for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2017 before markets open Thursday. Analysts polled by Reuters expect the company, which is the world’s largest retailer by sales, to report earnings of 88 cents a share in the quarter ending April — a 14.3 percent drop over the same quarter last year, when it reported $1.03 per share in earnings.