Revenue of $177.8 billion, a $3 billion beat. Comps up 4.1%. E-commerce up 26%. And Walmart (WMT) cratered 7% on the session anyway.
What matters:
WMT matched the $0.66 EPS consensus and beat revenue by $3 billion, but inventory is growing faster than sales (8.9% vs. 7.3%) and fuel costs dragged operating income down by 250 basis points.
OpenAI is preparing a confidential IPO filing targeting a September debut above $1 trillion. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are running the books.
Intuit (INTU) cut 3,000 jobs, 17% of its workforce, to pivot toward AI. Shares fell 13% after hours.
The sell-off was not about demand. Same-store traffic rose, grocery held, digital fulfillment accelerated. Target (TGT) confirmed the same pattern earlier this week with comps of 5.6%.
The problem is what it costs to keep the engine running. Fuel hammered margins. Tariff uncertainty blocked management from giving specific EPS guidance for the rest of the year. They reaffirmed the existing annual outlook but did not raise it, and that was enough to trigger the worst single-day WMT reaction in over a year.
At roughly 40 times forward earnings, Walmart carried a growth-stock multiple into an earnings call that delivered growth with thinner margins. That is a valuation problem, not a demand problem.
Dollar General (DG) reports next week at 16 times forward earnings. The same fuel headwind hits its lower-income customer harder. If DG guides cautiously too, the consumer earnings season ends with a paradox: spending is rising and margins are shrinking.
OpenAI is racing SpaceX to market.
The confidential filing could land as soon as today. Private investors last valued the company at roughly $850 billion. Sam Altman is targeting a September listing above $1 trillion.
SpaceX filed its S-1 Monday at $1.75 trillion. Two companies that have not turned a profit are heading for public markets at a combined target north of $2.7 trillion.
The lawsuit that had blocked OpenAI's path was resolved earlier this month, clearing the legal overhang. The fall IPO calendar is shaping up to be the most consequential in over a decade.
Intuit slashed 17% of its workforce for AI.
INTU announced partnerships with Anthropic and OpenAI alongside the layoffs, feeding specialized tax and financial data into large language models. The stock is down more than 40% this year. Restructuring charges will run $300 to $340 million this quarter. This is the clearest example yet of a mature software company redirecting headcount dollars straight into AI infrastructure.
The quick hits.
Nvidia (NVDA) closed yesterday near $220, extending its post-earnings slide. Fourth straight quarter of selling into a beat.
Deere (DE) beat with EPS of $6.55 versus the $5.87 consensus. Construction equipment sales surged 29% year over year on infrastructure demand. Farm revenue fell 14% as agricultural capex keeps contracting. One company, two completely different economies depending on which segment you look at.
Single-family housing starts dropped 9% in April to a 930,000 annual rate. Permits rose 5.8%. Builders are planning but not breaking ground.
The University of Michigan consumer sentiment final reading lands this morning. The preliminary print hit 48.2, the lowest in the survey's 74-year history. One-third of respondents mentioned gas prices unprompted.
SpaceX scrubbed Starship V3 Flight 12 yesterday on a hydraulic pin fault. A retry could come as early as this morning from Starbase.
The S&P 500 closed Thursday at 7,446. The Dow set a record at 50,286. Brent is trading around $105 after swinging on Iran headlines all week. The 10-year yield settled near 4.57%.
See you Monday morning.
