United Airlines falls on mixed Q2 numbers and lowered full-year outlook

If recent history is any guide, Walmart’s Q4 earnings release Thursday before the bell will be appointment viewing.

This time last year, it wasn’t the DeepSeek freak-out or tariff chatter that caused the S&P 500 to definitively begin its downturn from all-time highs. It was Walmart’s underwhelming full-year guidance that catalyzed a momentum stock meltdown.

Since then, the retail behemoth has become a more important — and richly valued — part of the S&P 500, joining the trillion-dollar market cap club in the process. Investors have clamored for safety within the US stock market in 2026, and that’s meant bidding up the income streams associated with moving loads of volume at everyday low prices.

Jeff Jacobson, head of derivatives strategy at 22V Research, offers some perspective on just how well things have been going for the Bentonville-based giant:

• Walmart versus the SPDR S&P 500 ETF is at its highest level since the aftermath of the global financial crisis;

• The implied volatility of calls that offer exposure to additional upside in Walmart is very elevated relative to history (that is, they’re expensive);

• This is the only time in the past five years where Walmart has traded above Wall Street’s 12-month price target.

That makes the bar to clear, regardless of how the actual numbers and guidance end up, fairly high.

In Jacobson’s view, it would be prudent for Walmart holders to try to take advantage of this elevated implied volatility by selling upside, or attempting to lock in gains after this hot run.

His recommendations:

• Covered calls: sell April $145 calls at $3 or better.

• Collar the position: sell WMT May $155 calls, buy May $125 put, sell May $110 put.

AMC is enjoying a solid start to the week as management looks to make progress on managing its onerous (and expensive) debt load.

Bloomberg reports that the theater chain is marketing a $750 million term loan and seeking $1.73 billion in secured debt, citing a person with knowledge of the matter.

The obligations that the chain is reportedly looking to refinance are its $2 billion term loan due in 2029 (priced at one-month SOFR plus 700 basis points) and $400 million in senior notes due next year that carry a coupon of 12.75%.

Florida-based construction company JFB Construction Holdings climbed 14% in premarket trading on Tuesday following an announcement that it will merge with Israeli drone maker Xtend in a $1.5 billion deal.

The shares were halted for news pending Tuesday morning, per a Bloomberg trading notice, before resuming trading.

JFB said the deal is backed by investments from Eric Trump. Unusual Machines, a drone tech company linked to Donald Trump Jr., is also listed as a strategic investor.

Xtend has marketed some of its drone products as “low cost‑per‑kill” and in November announced it won a multimillion-dollar Pentagon contract.

ServiceNow’s executives have banded together to try to restore confidence in the struggling software company’s stock.

A filing released this morning showed CEO Bill McDermott entered into an agreement to purchase $3 million in company stock on February 27.

In addition, the CEO, CFO Gina Mastantuono, and three other executives ended their 10b5-1 trading plans (in which company stock is typically divested by an insider’s broker according to a preset schedule).

Shares were up about 3% in early trading before paring much of those gains.

ServiceNow was one of many software stocks to struggle this earnings season despite reporting better-than-expected results and rosy near-term guidance, as investors worry about the potential for industry-wide disruption by AI tools.

McDermott had attributed the slide in the stock to acquisitions announced in December. During the conference call following the company’s Q1 earnings report in late January, he told investors, “The worry is gone, you can give us back the market cap.”