Markets
markets
Tom Jones

Walmart rises after announcing new AI partnership with Google’s Gemini, as it’s set to join the Nasdaq 100 Index

Walmart is a rare winner in a sea of red this morning, up about 3.5% in premarket trading as of 5:50 a.m. ET, after the retailer yesterday announced a new partnership with Google that will allow customers to browse and buy Walmart and Sam’s Club products directly through the chatbot.

In the statement, Walmart said that shoppers will be able to access the features through Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) — a “new open standard for agentic commerce and AI tools” that the tech giant codeveloped with a range of retailers and launched on Sunday.

The partnership news follows another welcome event for Walmart shareholders, after Nasdaq revealed that the retailer would be joining the Nasdaq 100 Index prior to market open on January 20.

Ask me anything

When the ever-growing cohort of Gemini users ask the chatbot for shopping advice, they’ll now automatically be served product recommendations from the world’s largest retailer. Per the statement, users who choose to link their Walmart and Gemini accounts will also be able to use any membership benefits they may have and also get served recommendations based on previous purchases.

The new Gemini partnership builds on the deal that Walmart announced with OpenAI back in October, which has allowed ChatGPT users to browse and purchase the company’s products on the web and app platform.

In an interview around the announcement, David Guggina, Walmart’s chief e-commerce officer, said that the world is “moving past the era of the search bar.” Guggina added that the retailer is no longer just meeting people where they shop, but “anticipating how they live” — increasingly, that appears to mean via AI chatbots.

Walmart and Google Turn AI Discovery Into Effortless Shopping Experiences

Walmart and Google Turn AI Discovery Into Effortless Shopping Experiences

In the statement, Walmart said that shoppers will be able to access the features through Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) — a “new open standard for agentic commerce and AI tools” that the tech giant codeveloped with a range of retailers and launched on Sunday.

The partnership news follows another welcome event for Walmart shareholders, after Nasdaq revealed that the retailer would be joining the Nasdaq 100 Index prior to market open on January 20.

Ask me anything

When the ever-growing cohort of Gemini users ask the chatbot for shopping advice, they’ll now automatically be served product recommendations from the world’s largest retailer. Per the statement, users who choose to link their Walmart and Gemini accounts will also be able to use any membership benefits they may have and also get served recommendations based on previous purchases.

The new Gemini partnership builds on the deal that Walmart announced with OpenAI back in October, which has allowed ChatGPT users to browse and purchase the company’s products on the web and app platform.

In an interview around the announcement, David Guggina, Walmart’s chief e-commerce officer, said that the world is “moving past the era of the search bar.” Guggina added that the retailer is no longer just meeting people where they shop, but “anticipating how they live” — increasingly, that appears to mean via AI chatbots.

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Max Knoblauch

Report: Boeing could unveil 500-jet order from China during Trump’s visit later this month

Shares of Boeing are up nearly 4% on Friday afternoon, following a Bloomberg report that the company could be close to finalizing a deal to sell 500 planes to China.

The deal was first reported in August and would be one of Boeing’s largest ever.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, the deal could be officially unveiled when President Trump travels to China at the end of the month. That trip could be delayed given the war in Iran. The deal, sources say, could still fall apart — similar language to when it was first reported on more than six months ago.

Boeing has been on the outside of the Chinese market, in terms of new orders, since 2019 amid escalating US-China trade tensions.

Boeing Close to 500-Jet Order With Trump-Xi Summit

Boeing Close to 500-Jet Order With Trump-Xi Summit

According to Bloomberg’s sources, the deal could be officially unveiled when President Trump travels to China at the end of the month. That trip could be delayed given the war in Iran. The deal, sources say, could still fall apart — similar language to when it was first reported on more than six months ago.

Boeing has been on the outside of the Chinese market, in terms of new orders, since 2019 amid escalating US-China trade tensions.

markets
Matt Phillips

Why software shares are withstanding the war jitters

The outbreak of the war in Iran has clearly rattled investors and created a few clear winners — mostly energy stocks — and losers — consumer staples, airlines, and, well, more or else everything else.

But there is one interesting outlier to that Manichaean market dynamic.

Software shares — often the same companies that the market was giving up for dead just a few weeks ago due to overexpectations of an AI-driven disruption — have been holding up remarkably well.

These companies, including Intuit, ServiceNow, Datadog, Snowflake, IBM, Workday, and Oracle, have actually had a pretty decent run since the war started with a combined US-Israeli attack on Iran last weekend.

A new note from RBC Capital’s Rishi Jaluria suggests this isn’t just a fluke. Looking at the performance of software stocks during periods of geopolitical stress and market volatility over the last 10 and 25 years, his team found that software shares appear fairly well insulated when these broader shocks hit. RBC wrote:

“The defensive nature of SaaS models and the mission-critical nature of many core software systems at the enterprise level (e.g., in the absence of mass layoffs that may create seat-based headwinds, geopolitical uncertainty and/or market volatility typically will not cause an enterprise CIO to consider ripping out their ERP, CRM, Cyber systems, etc.”

I briefly got Jaluria on the phone yesterday, and he explained a bit more about why he thinks investors might see software as a decent place to hide out from the current chaos.

“With everything in the Middle East, you have to think about not just oil and gas input prices but also supply chains,” he said. “With software, you’re not really thinking about that.”

In other words, there is no equivalent of a closure of the Strait of Hormuz that software investors have to worry about.

Others suggested that the near-term profitability of these giant software companies — aside from concerns about potential long-term disruption from AI — may look different in the face of the economic uncertainty that seems to be growing with the war, especially after a sell-off that has left them relatively attractively valued.

Mark Moerdler, who covers software stocks for Bernstein Research, says that while the AI worries are clearly real, software companies continue to be highly productive cash cows.

“Everyone is afraid that AI is a massive disruptor, and all these articles you read talk about AI as massive disruptor or the world is ending or whatever,” he said. “You don’t see it in the fundamental numbers of the companies I cover. They are delivering GAAP profits, free cash flow, and they’re good investment ideas.”

Max Knoblauch
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