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Your wallet
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WMT -9.2%, slowest sales growth in 6+ years
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Walmart just had its worst day in four years. If their shoppers are pulling back, yours are too.
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Walmart posted its slowest quarterly sales growth in more than six years Thursday, missing expectations for comparable sales as rising gasoline prices squeezed shoppers across every income bracket. The stock crashed 9.2% — its worst single day since May 2022. Costco, Dollar Tree, and Albertsons all followed it lower, dropping 1% to 2.6% in sympathy. When the retailer that serves 270 million customers a week says the consumer is pulling back, it's not a company-specific problem — it's a household spending problem. The quarterly miss dragged the Dow down 703 points and pushed decliners over advancers by nearly 2 to 1 across the NYSE.
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The other side: Walmart beat on EPS at $0.81 versus $0.74 expected, and the company said the spending slowdown reflects gas price pressure, not a structural decline in demand — if oil drops, the customer comes back.
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2
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Markets
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Dow -703, S&P 7,641, decliners 2:1
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The Dow dropped 703 points. Your 401(k) felt it.
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The Dow fell 703 points Thursday — its worst session in weeks — as Walmart's miss combined with rising Treasury yields and oil above $87 to sour the entire market. The S&P 500 dropped 0.87% to 7,641 and the Nasdaq fell 1% to 26,067. Wednesday's Treasury buyback relief lasted exactly one session before yields climbed right back, erasing the brief reprieve that had lifted stocks a day earlier. If your retirement portfolio tracks the S&P, Thursday gave back most of the week's gains in a single afternoon.
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The other side: The S&P is still within 2% of its all-time high, and one bad session after a record run is textbook profit-taking, not a trend reversal.
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3
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Your money
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Deere +6.9%, first profit in 3 years
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Deere posted its first profit in three years. AI construction is building a different economy.
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While Walmart was crashing 9%, Deere rose 6.9% after posting its first quarterly profit in three years and raising its full-year net income forecast. The turnaround was driven by tariff refunds and an AI-fueled construction boom, with CEO John May calling 2026 “the bottom of the current ag equipment cycle.” If your portfolio holds any industrials exposure, Deere just told you the construction side is thriving even as the consumer side buckles. Two very different economies showed up in the same trading session — the question is which one your money is in.
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The other side: Deere's profit relied partly on one-time tariff refunds, not recurring demand — strip those out and the ag equipment market is still in a downcycle.
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