On August 20, 2026, Walmart shares dropped more than 9% for the biggest single-day decline since 2022, erasing about $80 billion in market capitalization. This occurred even though the company beat Wall Street revenue and profit expectations with $187.9 billion in revenue and adjusted earnings per share of $0.81, and raised its full-year guidance.
The drop was triggered by a sharp slowdown in U.S. sales growth. Comparable U.S. sales grew by 2.6%, missing the expected 3.7% and marking the slowest pace since the fourth quarter of 2020 due to weaker-than-projected customer traffic and average transaction sizes.
Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey attributed the slowdown to shifting consumer behavior as fuel prices rose above $4 a gallon, noting that shoppers made trade-offs, particularly in June. Lower prescription drug prices from Medicare legislation and the adoption of GLP-1 weight-loss medications were also cited as factors weighing on sales growth. Because Walmart is a bellwether retailer, the results were seen as a warning about the broader health of the U.S. consumer and weighed on all three major U.S. stock indexes.