Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Fall After Four Days of Losses for S&P 500 as Tech Stocks Remain Under Pressure; Walmart Drops After Earnings

Walmart Slides as Profit Misses Analysts’ Estimates

4 minutes ago

Shares of Walmart (WMT) fell 3% before the opening bell Thursday after the giant retailer reported fiscal 2026 second-quarter profit below expectation. 

The Bentonville, Ark.-based firm posted adjusted earnings per share of $0.68, below the $0.73 expectation of analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha. Revenue increased nearly 5% year-over-year to $177.40 billion, ahead of the $175.97 billion consensus.

U.S. comparable sales growth came in at 4.3%, above the 4.1% projection. Global eCommerce sales rose 25%, “led by store-fulfilled pickup & delivery and marketplace,” while analysts were looking for 17.2% growth.

However, operating income fell more than 8%, “affected by discrete legal and restructuring items,” Walmart said.

Walmart raised its fiscal 2026 outlooks for revenue growth and adjusted EPS, to 3.75% to 4.75% and $2.52 to $2.62, respectively. For the current quarter, it sees revenue growth of 3.75% to 4.75% and adjusted EPS of $0.58 to $0.60, both above consensus estimates.

Walmart shares entered Thursday up about 14% this year at $102.57, with all 12 of the analysts tracked by Visible Alpha with recent assessments recommending buying them. 

“Net-net, we see some potential small pressure on the shares but the report in no way fundamentally alters the bull case, in our view,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note.

–Aaron Rennie

Major Index Futures Point to Lower Open

37 minutes ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.4%.

S&P 500 futures fell 0.3%.

Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 0.2%.