Joseph Woelfel

ATLANTA (TheStreet) -- Home Depot(HD) said earnings rose 12% to $812 million, or 50 cents a share, in its fiscal first quarter but total sales declined 0.2% and comparable-store sales dropped 0.6%. More on HD Market Activity Home Depot Inc.| HD Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the world's No. 1 home-improvement retailer to earn 49 cents a share. Home Depot's first-quarter sales were $16.8 billion, coming in shy of analysts' estimates of sales of $17.02 billion. Home Depot, in a statement Tuesday, said U.S. comparable-store sales fell 0.7%. The company said its sales fell because of a "slow