Walmart’s inventories are shrinking and its sales are growing. The retail giant’s comparable-store sales rose 6.5% in the quarter ending July 29, the WSJ’s Sarah Nassauer reports, and Walmart claimed progress in paring its glut of goods as the value of merchandise in stock fell 2% from the first quarter. That was still 25% ahead of last year’s second quarter, a measure of the steep imbalance in supplies that Walmart and other retailers are coping with amid supply-chain bottlenecks and fractured demand forecasting. Walmart has canceled billions of dollars of orders and sold much of its excess summer stocks, and officials believe the inventory glut has now peaked. The effort is coming at a cost. The big discounting to get goods off the shelves has cut into margins, but Walmart is betting that leaner inventories will set the company up for a stronger close to the year.

• Home Depot’s second-quarter sales rose 6.5% as the retailer’s higher prices more than offset another drop in transactions. (WSJ)
• Retailers and packaged-goods suppliers are increasingly clashing over how much to pass along higher costs to consumers. (CNBC)

Harsh weather patterns soon may be reaching into apparel supply chains. Southwestern cotton growers are abandoning millions of parched acres that they planted in the spring, the WSJ’s Ryan Dezember reports, sending prices sharply higher on forecasts for the weakest U.S. harvest in more than a decade. U.S. analysts project this year’s domestic cotton crop will be down some 28% from last year, and will be the smallest crop since a meager 2009 harvest helped set the stage for record prices. They also predict some of the lowest end-of season inventories in decades. U.S. agricultural forecasters expect drought-struck farmers to walk away from more than 40% of the 12.5 million acres they sowed with cotton and to harvest the smallest area since 1868. Though farmers have insurance to fall back on, the economic pain risks spreading throughout the region and to farming-sector suppliers.

The latest big management shift in the logistics sector highlights the growing importance of data and technology in the business. Mario Harik will move into the CEO position at XPO Logistics from his post as chief information officer when he succeeds Brad Jacobs later this year. It’s a somewhat unusual step, but Mr. Harik tells the WSJ’s Isabelle Bousquette that it signals the company is “always looking at every problem that we have, or every opportunity that we have, or every customer relationship that we have, as having technology as part of the answer.” Technology’s role in freight has accelerated in recent years as digital startups have pressed traditional companies to ramp up investments to compete. At XPO, Mr. Harik’s efforts include building a pricing platform that offers cost estimates with less manual processing and machine-learning algorithms that optimize the number of stops truck drivers make to increase efficiency.

House construction in the U.S. fell 9.6% from June to July and new building permits declined 1.3%. (WSJ)

U.S. industrial production rose 0.6% in July and output reached a record high. (MarketWatch)

American Airlines agreed to buy 20 ultra-fast planes being developed by Boom Supersonic. (WSJ)

Mining group BHP’s annual profit nearly tripled as it benefited from strong commodity prices. (WSJ)

Amazon says U.S. regulators are harassing founder Jeff Bezos with their probe of the company’s Prime membership program. (WSJ)

Researchers say Southeast U.S. hurricane seasons are starting weeks earlier than normal because of rising ocean temperatures. (WSJ)

Average diesel prices across the U.S. have fallen by about 90 cents a gallon since the week of June 20. (Fleet Owner)

China’s investment in Mexico is surging as factory owners seek to get around U.S. tariffs. (Nikkei Asia)

Dozens of workers at Amazon’s San Bernardino, Calif., air hub walked off their jobs to protest low wages and working conditions. (Washington Post)

JLL says warehouse leasing volume rose 17% in the second quarter and rents rose 21% from a year ago to $8 per square foot. (Logistics Management)

Australia-based logistics property company Goodman Group says its warehouses across the U.S., Europe and Asia are 99% occupied. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Shipping lines are preparing for the possibility that an eight-day strike at the U.K.’s Port of Felixstowe will be followed by more walkouts. (The Loadstar)

Few vessel operators are preparing for Europe’s proposed inclusion of maritime transportation in the Emissions Trading System. (S&P Global)

Tanker operators haven’t ordered any very large crude carriers in more than a year. (TradeWinds)

Second-quarter profit at Abu Dhabi’s AD Ports jumped 59% to $82 million. (Port Technology)

A private investment group hopes to break ground on an inland container sorting station in California’s Mojave Desert next year. (Supply Chain Dive)

Volga-Dnepr founder and President Alexei Isaikin stepped down as the Russian freight airline seeks to avoid sanctions. (Aviation Week)

Google’s Africa Investment Fund is investing an undisclosed amount in African digital-focused transport and logistics startup Lori Systems. (TechCrunch)

Paul Page is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Write to him at paul.page@wsj.com.

Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team: @PaulPage, @bylizyoung and @pdberger. Follow the WSJ Logistics Report on Twitter at @WSJLogistics.