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NEW YORK (AP) — A sharp slide for Walmart on Thursday helped pull Wall Street off of its record.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.4% for its first drop after setting all-time highs in each of the last two days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 450 points, or 1%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.5%.
Walmart drove the market lower after falling 6.5%, even though the retailer reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based giant gave a forecast for upcoming profit that fell short of analysts’ expectations as shoppers across the country deal with still-high inflation and the threat of tariffs from President Donald Trump.
Walmart is still forecasting growth in revenue for this upcoming year and said it has experience in navigating the effects of tariffs, but its profit outlook helped pull stocks lower across the retail industry. Costco fell 2.6%,Target dropped 2% and Amazon lost 1.7%.
Palantir Technologies was another weight on the market. It fell 5.2% to follow its 10.1% drop from the day before, after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he wants to cut $50 billion in spending next year. The software company got 55% of its $2.9 billion in revenue last year from government customers.
They helped offset an 8.5% jump for Baxter International, which reported better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It credited strength for its pharmaceuticals business, as well as for its medical products and therapies.
Burger chain Shake Shack rallied 11.1% after likewise reporting a stronger profit than expected. CEO Rob Lynch said sales trends remained solid during the quarter, even though bad weather around the country and wildfires in the Los Angeles area kept some customers away.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba saw its stock that trades in the United States climb 8.1% after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also talked up its artificial-intelligence developments.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 26.63 points to 6,117.52. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 450.94 to 44,176.65, and the Nasdaq composite sank 93.89 to 19,962.36.
In the bond market, Treasury yields edged lower after a report showed more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected. It’s an indication the pace of layoffs could be worsening, but the number still remains relatively low compared with history.
A separate report said growth for manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region is still growing, but not as strongly as economists expected.