Mart of Wal executives sing the blues

[Pixilated]

Red alert! Customers and their money are missing!!

WalMart's shares fell 2.2% on Feb. 18. Of course, they're still up $10.54 from this time last year, but ...

Just FYI: I put this here because it didn't seem to belong in any of the other threads, and I put it in 'Fratching' because I wasn't sure where it might (or might not; who knows, LOL?) lead in terms of responses.

[TheHuckster]

It's a barometer of consumer confidence and the general economy. If Wal-Mart's stock is dropping in price, it's an indication that confidence in the economy remains bad.

In other words, the sky is blue.

[Greenday]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the proposed minimum wage increase...

[HYHYBT]

It very easily could be neither. A lot of stock price is based on expected *growth.* Walmart's unbelievably huge already.

[smileyeagle1021]

It very easily could be neither. A lot of stock price is based on expected *growth.* Walmart's unbelievably huge already.

I was thinking the same thing... this is more likely a stabalization rather than a drop. Wal-Mart already has stores in pretty much every first world market and a good chunk of the second world. They are running out of places to expand. A rising stock price would indicate that they are expecting profits to grow, so this could simply be the market reflecting that profits are likely to become relatively stable.
I don't think this is so much a consumer confidence thing. There are a lot of other outlets that have a lot of room to grow and are growing. Target is making a big splash right now, as is Amazon, and we're seeing last hurrahs from places like Best Buy, Sears, and JC Pennys (which I actually hope Best Buy and JC Pennys are turnarounds and not last hurrahs, because I actually do like those brands, I've always gotten good service at both... Sears can choke on my rod). Also, there are a lot of new competitors with the growth of dollar stores and even a bit of a return to a buy local mentality in a lot of the country. I think Wal-Mart's biggest concern isn't so much their stock price, but the fact that they are no longer the defacto market indicator.

[bara]

Ran across this about Wal-Mart.

I thought it was a good addition to this thread. Could even go to social woes I think. But this is fairly true of many of the Wal-Marts in my area. They are cutting hours and aren't replacing orders. So many people are just going down the street to either Target, Meijers, of Kroger. If there arent people to stock shelves and people to help customers find what they are looking for then the customers will just go some where else.