Discounts will be deep on Friday, analysts say

Discounts will likely be led by Wal-Mart after Chief Executive H. Lee Scott said the company planned to be aggressive on prices this year. Last year, the company stumbled in the early days of the holiday season by limiting discounts to bolster profit.

"Wal-Mart is going to hit the discounts deep and hard," said Patricia Edwards, a money manager at Wentworth, Hauser & Violich in Seattle. "In the game of war, that's what you do to put your opponents behind."

In a holiday circular on its Web site, Wal-Mart is advertising DVDs for as low as $3.44 and a Hewlett-Packard Co. desktop computer with a 15-inch LCD flat panel monitor for $398. Wal-Mart Stores will offer a 42-inch plasma television for $997, almost 75 percent less than Best Buy Co.

Wal-Mart's special offers, such as the plasma TV, will run from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Friday. Get a sneak peak at the discounts at http://www.walmart.com/