Stocks sink as sluggish Walmart outlook sparks growth fears

The S&P 500 fell 0.4%, the Nasdaq 100 gave back 0.5%, and the Russell 2000 dropped 0.9% on Thursday.

Walmart had its worst day in over a year after issuing an underwhelming earnings outlook. The bellwether retailer’s guidance also seemingly weighed on financials, which was the worst-performing S&P sector ETF on the day.

Alibaba boomed after delivering everything investors wanted and more in its quarterly results, with management saying that revenue growth in its AI-enhanced cloud business would continue to accelerate.

Palantir faced severe selling pressure amid reports of cuts to defense spending and CEO Alex Karp’s new plan that allows him to sell about 10 million shares.

Cruise stocks were clobbered after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the cohort would face higher taxes, with Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Carnival all ending deeply red.

Effective cost controls helped Shake Shack soar after reporting earnings.

Hasbro also booked a double-digit advance after reporting better-than-expected revenues and saying sales should be up in the mid-single digits this year.

Carvana dropped double digits after reporting earnings that looked fine on the surface, but included some flies in the ointment that disappointed investors after the stock’s amazing run over the past year.