Stocks Slip at the Opening Bell as Wall Street Waits on Powell; Walmart’s Miss Takes the Shine Off Strong Sales

Wall Street started Thursday on the back foot. The major U.S. indices ticked lower at the opening bell, a modest retreat that reflected a market more interested in what the Federal Reserve will say in Jackson Hole than in taking fresh risk. The Dow and S&P 500 each opened in the red, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq eased as well—small moves that nonetheless underscored a cautious setup heading into Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks. 
Walmart was the early lightning rod. On paper, the update looked constructive: demand remains broad-based across income tiers, online growth is brisk, and management lifted both its sales and profit targets for the year. Beneath the surface, however, a rare earnings miss told a different story about the near term. With tariff-related costs still seeping into inventory and pricing, investors fretted over margins and marked the shares lower despite the improved outlook—a classic case of strong top-line trends colliding with a more complicated cost backdrop.
That tension mirrored the broader mood. After weeks of seesaw trading, the market’s confidence in a swift rate cut has cooled. Minutes from the Fed’s last meeting leaned cautious, and traders now see less urgency for near-term easing than they did earlier in the summer. The result: growth favorites—particularly mega-cap tech—have swung around as investors debate how much premium they’re willing to pay ahead of new policy signals. Jackson Hole looms as the tie-breaker.
Company-specific headlines provided their own color. Boeing picked up early as reports circulated about talks for a sizeable jet order tied to China—news that, if realized, would mark an incremental positive for the travel and industrial complex. Elsewhere, Coty’s sharp drop on softer U.S. spending served as a reminder that discretionary categories still face a tougher consumer. These idiosyncratic moves, when blended together, left sector leadership choppy and momentum hard to trust. 
The macro feed into the open didn’t change the narrative much. Labor indicators have softened at the margin compared with early summer, and retailers continue to describe an environment where tariffs complicate planning and pricing. The takeaway for many desks: absent a clear steer from Powell, the path of least resistance is to reduce risk, wait for the speech, and reassess positioning afterward. That means thinner liquidity, exaggerated stock-by-stock reactions, and an index tape that can flip quickly on even modest surprises. 
Put it all together and Thursday’s early trade felt less like a selloff than a deliberate slowdown. If Powell offers a roadmap to rate cuts, bulls will have something firmer to lean on. If he emphasizes patience, the market may need to digest a longer stretch of restrictive policy—even as retailers like Walmart show that the U.S. consumer is still very much in the game. For now, the opening weakness looks like a placeholder ahead of the week’s main event.