NEW YORK — Walmart says it is asking some stores to schedule workers for fewer hours, although it says the directive is only being given to stores that are assigning more hours than they were expected to.

The world's largest retailer said the instructions apply only to a small number of its 4,500 U.S. locations that are scheduling workers for more hours than expected.

Walmart said Monday it spoke to store managers about controlling costs earlier this month at a holiday-season planning meeting. Managers who have been scheduling workers for too many hours were reminded to schedule closer to their allotted hours.

“Managing hours is a routine part of running a sustainable operation, and in select number of stores, it requires keeping those hours to what was originally budgeted,” Walmart said.

Walmart's second-quarter profit fell 15 percent, partly because of pay raises, efforts to overhaul its stores, and investments in its online operations

The Bentonville, Ark.-based company raised its minimum wage to $9 an hour in April and plans to raise it to $10 an hour by February.

PITTSBURGH — The United Steelworkers union says it plans to continue negotiating with U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal past today's expiration of contracts for 30,000 steelworkers.The union told ArcelorMittal employees in a negotiations update on its website that it would continue talks rather than seek strike authorization and asked members “to continue reporting for work as scheduled” as long as the talks continue.U.S. Steel responded that it remained committed to operating “without disruption” as contract negotiations continue and appreciated the union's “commitment to extend the contract negotiations.”