A man of second acts, Marcus started Home Depot after getting fired from another retailer. He then became a philanthropist, a Republican megadonor and an evangelist of capitalism.

Bernard "Bernie" Marcus, the co-founder of The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement chain, a billionaire philanthropist, and a big Republican donor, has died. He was 95.

Home Depot's sales continued to weaken in its fiscal fourth quarter, as the country's largest home improvement retailer deals with Americans who remain concerned about high mortgage rates and inflation. While its quarterly results topped analysts' expectations, it provided a soft sales forecast for fiscal 2024. Shares slipped before the market open on Tuesday.

After years of explosive growth during the pandemic, Home Depot's revenue during the first quarter fell short of expectations and the company cut its profit and sales outlook for the year, sending shares lower at the opening bell.

The Home Depot posted strong profits in its final quarter of 2022, but a tepid outlook for this year is sinking shares of the home improvement retailer.

The first changes were reflected in employees' Feb. 17 paycheck, the company announced Tuesday. Ohers will see the changes on their Feb. 24 paychecks.

More than 260 workers will be able to begin voting on Wednesday. Results are expected late Saturday.

The Home Depot's uniform policy bans political or religious messages "unrelated to workplace matters" from employees' aprons, or elsewhere on their clothing.