Walmart (NASDAQ:WMT) rose 2.82% to close at $121.12 on Thursday, October 22, 2026, lifting its market value to $960.94 billion, about 4.1% short of $1 trillion, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.60% that day. Up 16.6% in October, the stock is on pace for its best month since 1999. The article attributes the rally partly to money rotating from AI and tech into consumer staples, noting the State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP) gained 11.7% in October. Walmart trades at 44 times earnings with a 0.82% dividend yield, and the article says the risk outweighs the reward at this price. It also notes Bank of America clients sold a record $14.8 billion of individual U.S. stocks in the week through October 16, while prediction-market traders put the odds of a 2026 recession at 7.5%.
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