°®¶¹´«Ã½

NEW YORK — Target reported solid sales for the fiscal second quarter but its profit plunged nearly 90% after it was forced to slash prices to clear unwanted inventories of clothing, home goods and electronics.

Target Corp. will open three new package-sorting centers during the next year — two in greater Chicago and one in the Denver area — to further its strategy of using stores to handle online orders.

Target Corp. plunged the most since 1987’s Black Monday crash after becoming the second big retailer in two days to trim its profit forecast.

Not to be outdone, Walmart and Target have announced they will hold big sales that will compete with Amazon Prime Day.

During its first-quarter earnings call May 20, Target Corp. said its stores helped fulfill an unexpected surge in online orders.

Recession fears may be mounting in certain parts of the U.S. economy, but Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. are signaling that the all-important American consumer is doing just fine.

Target Corp. jumped the most in more than two months as it followed up strong holiday sales with upbeat projections for the current year, distancing itself from the travails of mall-based department stores.

Target Corp. is expanding perks like free two-day delivery to snag as much as possible of the $100 billion in sales the company sees up for grabs from retailers that have gone under.

Target Corp. agreed to purchase grocery-delivery startup Shipt Inc. for $550 million, stepping up its challenge to Amazon.com Inc. by speeding the rollout of same-day shipping.

Target Corp. agreed to acquire a software company that manages local and same-day deliveries in a bid to keep pace with Amazon and Wal-Mart.