Walmart Shares Extend Decline After Rare US Sales Miss

Walmart Inc.’s quarterly sales fell short of expectations, a rare miss that’s likely to stoke concern about the leading big-box retailer decelerating alongside a slow-growing US economy. Sales at US stores open at least a year, excluding fuel, rose 2.6% in the second quarter, shy of the lowest analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg. That rate of growth — hindered primarily by pricing pressure in its pharmacy business — is the slowest in more than six years. Walmart shares fell as much as 10%, the most intraday since 2022, in New York trading on Thursday, erasing a modest year-to-date gain through the previous day’s close. We get reaction from Poonam Goyal, Senior US Retail Analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. (Source: Bloomberg)