Walmart shares plunged on concerns about slower growth in its core U.S. retail business, wiping out about $81.2 billion in market value in a day. The stock fell about 9 percent intraday and at one point posted a double-digit decline.

Decrypto, a blockchain outlet, reported on Aug. 20 local time that Walmart shares traded around $104 after falling $10.20 from $114.30 a day earlier. The intraday low was $102.85. Based on about 7.96 billion shares outstanding, market value fell to about $829 billion from about $910 billion.

The shock was not due to weak results. Walmart posted quarterly revenue of $187.94 billion, up 5.9 percent from a year earlier and above the market estimate of $186.82 billion. Adjusted earnings per share were $0.81, above the consensus of $0.74. Operating profit rose 28.8 percent to about $9.4 billion, but that included the impact of a $2.9 billion tariff refund.

Investors focused on growth in the core U.S. business. U.S. comparable sales excluding fuel rose 2.6 percent. The market estimate was about 3.7 to 3.8 percent. It was the first miss on U.S. comparable sales expectations in more than 5 years and the lowest growth rate since 2020. The previous quarter's increase was 4.1 percent.

A slowdown in customer traffic was also confirmed. The increase in visitors fell to 1.5 percent this quarter from 3 percent the previous quarter. Walmart cut prices on about 11,000 items, but the customer expansion effect investors expected has not yet appeared.

Weakness in the U.S. business was also affected by price declines in the pharmacy segment. Health and wellness revenue fell due to federal Medicare drug price adjustments, and excluding that segment U.S. comparable sales growth was estimated at about 3.4 percent. That figure also fell short of market expectations.

Spending conditions for low-income consumers were also cited as a burden. High fuel costs reduced discretionary spending capacity, and management saw fuel-related costs rising by more than $2 billion annually above its previous forecast. Walmart said it plans to use most of the $2.9 billion tariff refund for additional discounts on groceries and general merchandise through year-end.

The biggest disappointment was third-quarter guidance. Walmart projected quarterly revenue growth of 3 to 3.75 percent. That was well below the market estimate of about 4.9 percent. It also forecast adjusted earnings per share of $0.62 to $0.64, below Wall Street's estimate of $0.67.

It raised its full-year outlook. Walmart increased its annual revenue growth forecast to 4 to 5 percent and lifted adjusted earnings per share guidance to $2.80 to $2.87. But the midpoint of the profit outlook was below the market expectation of about $2.90, and investors reacted more sensitively to the short-term slowdown signal than to the full-year increase.

Growth drivers did not fully fade. Global e-commerce revenue rose 23 percent and U.S. e-commerce revenue increased 24 percent. Walmart Connect, its U.S. advertising business, grew 43 percent. Walmart is expanding higher-margin businesses such as online and advertising in addition to offline sales, but this time weak comparable sales and slower customer growth weighed more heavily.

The share decline also spread to the tokenised stock market. Ondo-based Walmart tokenised stock WMTon fell 10.7 percent over 24 hours to around $104.79. The price range over the same period was $104.34 to $117.47. Volume was about $692,000, up 56 percent from a day earlier, and circulating market value was about $2.11 million. CoinGecko put it 22.5 percent below its all-time high of $135.25 recorded in May.

The drop reflected concerns about the pace of growth in Walmart's core U.S. business and the outlook for future demand rather than overall results. Revenue, adjusted profit, e-commerce and advertising all rose, but an unusual miss on comparable sales and conservative third-quarter guidance shook the current premium valuation.