Walmart is still king of Retail America as Target sales continue to slide

The former is now worth about 18x as much as the latter.

8/22/25 9:22AM

It’s been a big week for retail, with the effects of tariffs fully setting in for some of America’s best-known store chains as they report results for the second quarter.

On Thursday, Walmart shares fell more than 4% after the company posted its first quarterly profit miss since May 2022, with adjusted earnings per share falling below expectations — despite US same-store sales growing almost 5%, topping forecasts and bringing in more than $177 billion in revenue.

While there were aspects of Walmart’s results that investors were less than enthusiastic about, including hints at further price hikes, there was also plenty to like: the company cited its massive supply chain and dominant market position as reasons it can keep its price rises below the national average. However, in the face of tariffs and slumping consumer spending, not all retailers are faring so well.

Wide of the mart

Just a day before, Target, one of Walmart’s biggest competitors, reported pretty much the exact opposite situation. Though earnings came in above expectations, same-store sales fell 1.9% and profit dropped by almost 20% — marking the retailer’s 11th consecutive quarter of flat or falling sales. Target stock sank ~6% in Wednesday trading, seeing its market cap get dragged even further behind its rival.

With Target’s model reliant on international goods — it imports roughly half of its merchandise, compared with ~33% at Walmart, per CNN — the retailer needs to raise prices even further to mitigate the impact of tariffs. But even before that, Target was struggling to draw customers from discount chains and e-commerce giants like Amazon.

Now, Target is hoping that a leadership shake-up might help to get sales out of the red. Around its quarterly results, the company announced that CEO Brian Cornell will step down in February after more than a decade, with current Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke, who’s been at the company for 22 years, set to take the helm.

Max Knoblauch6h

Premium seats help push airlines higher following third-quarter results

Shares of American Airlines are climbing toward the carrier’s best trading day since August 12, when ultra-budget rival Spirit issued its initial warning about its ability to survive. American’s shares are up more than 7% on Friday afternoon.

Investors’ optimism comes a day after American posted a better-than-expected full-year earnings forecast. In a call with investors, American said that it’s ramping up its premium cabin offerings.

“Our ability to grow capacity in premium markets will be further supported as we take delivery of new aircraft and reconfigure our existing fleet. These efforts will allow us to grow our premium seats at nearly two times the rate of main cabin seats,” CEO Robert Isom said. American CFO Devin May said that nose-to-tail retrofits of certain wide-body jets will bump the number of premium seats available on those planes by 25%.

Extra legroom has been a boon for major carriers, particularly this quarter. Delta Air Lines said its premium product revenue grew 9% in Q3, compared to a 4% drop in economy seat revenue. Similarly, United Airlines said its premium revenue grew 6%, outpacing economy. Shares of both airlines were up more than 3% on Friday.

Carriers with less exposure to first- and business-class tickets like Southwest Airlines and JetBlue didn’t see the same amount of momentum on the day.