Dow Plunges 200 Points as Walmart Earnings Shock Sparks Retail Rout

Wall Street's retail reckoning hits as consumer giant stumbles.

Walmart's earnings miss sent shockwaves through traditional markets—proof that even retail titans aren't immune to economic headwinds. The Dow's 200-point retreat signals deeper concerns about consumer spending resilience.

Meanwhile, crypto markets continue operating on their own rhythm—because when was the last time Bitcoin cared about retail earnings reports?

Traditional finance's obsession with quarterly earnings feels increasingly archaic against crypto's 24/7 global trading cycle. While Wall Street frets over single-stock performance, digital assets build entire economic systems.

Another day, another reminder that legacy markets still dance to earnings music while cryptocurrencies write entirely new scores.

Stocks dip amid Walmart earnings miss

While the bloodbath for mega-cap tech stocks cooled, a dip in Walmart (WMT) shares after the retail giant missed quarterly profit forecasts pulled the Dow lower. Walmart, however, raised its full-year sales and profit outlook.

Meanwhile, shorts have taken a rare edge in the stock market since the rally began in May, with sentiment down after sellers scored big on the sharp sell-off in tech stocks.

Analysts have pointed to Palantir Technologies’ streak of six losing sessions as a slide that has erased tens of billions in market value. Although the company’s stock ticked higher on Aug. 21, it remains more than 17% down from its Aug. 12 peak.

Bearish momentum across risk assets has also weighed on cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin down over 4% in the past week to hover near $113k. Despite the dip, Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong has predicted BTC could reach $1 million by 2030.

Jackson Hole in focus 

As stocks struggle and investors retreat from risk-on assets, all eyes are firmly on this week’s key event, the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole symposium. The gathering of policymakers and economists has the market focused not only on what Fed Chair Jerome Powell will say on Friday morning, but also on what his remarks signal about the future of interest rates.

That focus has sharpened after the Fed’s July minutes revealed the central bank is more concerned with sticky inflation than with weakness in the labor market.