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A sharp slide for Walmart on Thursday helped pull Wall Street off of its record.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.4% for its first drop after setting all-time highs in each of the last two days. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 450 points, or 1%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.5%.
Walmart drove the market lower after falling 6.5%, even though the retailer reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The Bentonville, Ark.-based giant gave a forecast for upcoming profit that fell short of analysts’ expectations.
Its profit outlook helped pull stocks lower across the retail industry. Costco fell 2.6%,Target dropped 2% and Amazon lost 1.7%.
Palantir Technologies was another weight on the market. It fell 5.2% to follow its 10.1% drop from the day before, after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he wants to cut $50 billion in spending next year.
They helped offset an 8.5% jump for Baxter International, which reported better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Burger chain Shake Shack rallied 11.1% after likewise reporting a stronger profit than expected.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba saw its stock that trades in the United States climb 8.1% after reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also talked up its artificial-intelligence developments.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 26.63 points to 6,117.52. The Dow dropped 450.94 to 44,176.65, and the Nasdaq composite sank 93.89 to 19,962.36.
In the bond market, Treasury yields edged lower after a report showed more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected.
A separate report said growth for manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region is still growing, but not as strongly as economists expected.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.50% from 4.54% late Wednesday. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for upcoming Fed moves, held steadier. It remained at 4.27%, where it was late Wednesday.
— Associated Press