New York, March 3, 2026, 19:03 ET — After-hours
- Walmart shares picked up 0.6% to $127.91, outpacing the wider market’s dip.
- Target shares shot up roughly 7% following a positive outlook and the launch of a fresh turnaround plan.
- Traders are eyeing Friday’s U.S. jobs and retail-sales data for the market’s next move.
Walmart climbed 0.6% Tuesday, last quoted at $127.91 after hours—trading continues post-4 p.m. ET. Shares swung from $125.54 to $128.36 across the session, with some 16.5 million shares traded.
Walmart shares held their ground even as Wall Street slipped, with investors rattled by concerns that the Middle East conflict might push up energy prices and stoke inflation. “This is the fear of it getting worse,” said Oliver Pursche, senior vice president and adviser at Wealthspire Advisors. Reuters
Target shares jumped after CEO Michael Fiddelke rolled out a turnaround strategy and predicted a return to annual sales growth. The company reported a “healthy, positive sales increase in February,” with guidance for 2% net sales growth in 2026—coming off three years of declines—and plans to spend over $2 billion this year. RBC’s Steven Shemesh said Target now faces the real test: proving it can hold its own against Walmart and Amazon. Reuters
Retail giants took different paths. Target jumped 6.8%, Costco edged up 0.5%. Amazon barely budged. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF dropped 0.6%, and SPY, which tracks the S&P 500, lost 0.9%.
Walmart sent executives to investor events, with Daniel Danker, EVP of AI Acceleration, Product and Design, lined up for a fireside chat at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom conference. The company plans to post a transcript after the session.
Retailers could get a reality check soon: the U.S. February jobs report lands March 6, right alongside January retail sales. Reuters polling points to a 60,000 payroll gain, down from January’s 130,000. Investors are bracing for any move in rate-cut bets.
Still, inflation jitters that may steer consumers into Walmart’s aisles also threaten its expense line—think stubbornly high fuel and squeezed freight capacity. Should investors start to see these price levels as “sticky,” that defensive trade boosting Walmart on Tuesday could lose ground in a hurry.
Walmart traders are watching Friday’s jobs and retail-sales data as the next catalyst. Weekend headlines could shift oil, inflation bets, and consumer sentiment, adding more fuel to the mix.
