Wall St ends lower as weak Walmart guidance prompts consumer demand worries

Wall St ends lower as weak Walmart guidance prompts consumer demand worries

By Stephen Culp

Thu February 20, 2025 4:21 PM

Walmart turned the world upside down today when it announced a downbeat forecast due to tariffs, which in turn trashed their stock price to the tune of a whopping 6.5% one-day loss which then in turn infected the rest of the market. As Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer, is regarded as the bulwark for consumer spending, this sent everyone to the exits, especially the blue-chip Dow suffering a 450 point loss. It is yet one more indication of the feared damage the Trump tariffs may do to the overall economy.  

Investors struggle with the question: is this just a bargaining chip or is this administration actually going to go through with it? Fear and uncertainty will dominate until this question is answered. And it’s not just the tariffs. The recent mass federal firings, which are only going to get worse, has left economists with fears of labor market disruptions which may also harm the economy. Uncertainty abounds and is likely to get worse. For a third day, Reuters has published the exact same data on volume so we’ll go with the CBOE which reported 14.6 billion trades today. 

DJ: 44,627.59  +71.25       NAS: 20,056.25  +14.99      S&P: 6,144.15  +14.57         2/19

DJ: 44,176.65  -450.94      NAS: 19,962.36  -93.89       S&P: 6,117.52  -26.63          2/20

Thu 2-20-25 4:21 pm Wall St ends lower as weak Walmart guidance prompts consumer demand worries | Reuters