Stocks slide as traders assess Walmart earnings, potential Iran conflict: Live updates

Stocks fell on Thursday, giving back some of the gains from the previous session, as investors weighed the latest quarterly results from Walmart and monitored simmering tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 426 points, or 0.9%. The S&P 500 slipped 0.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.7%

Walmart shares were marginally lower after the company’s full-year earnings outlook fell short of expectations. This overshadowed better-than-expected results for the fourth quarter.

Investors remained on edge as crude prices extended gains amid a standoff between Iran and the U.S. over the former’s nuclear program. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he’s going to determine whether to launch military strikes against the Middle Eastern country in the next 10 days.

Those on Wall Street also moved out of asset manager stocks after Blue Owl Capital announced it’s going to tighten investor liquidity following its sale of $1.4 billion in loan assets. That stock declined more than 9%, while others such as Blackstone and Apollo Global Management were down 5% and 6%, respectively.

Alongside asset managers, software was another area under pressure. Salesforce shares were lower by more than 1%, while Intuit shares fell more than 2%. Shares of Cadence Design Systems declined 4%.

The group has become a sore spot for the market lately as investors fear that artificial intelligence will disrupt the industry. In fact, Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch told CNBC Wednesday that more than 50% of enterprises’ software could be replaced by the technology.

The recent market moves are a “confirmation of a change in leadership,” said Antonio Rodrigues, chief investment officer at Procyon. “We need to see earnings momentum starting to come out of the lower 490 names,” he added.

In particular, Rodrigues is eyeing industrials as well as consumer cyclicals, two areas that he believes could “see some efficiencies as it relates to some of the AI spending.”

“Everything that’s related to the grid still has legs,” he said. “There’s still lots of things being built. Those are multiyear, even perhaps multidecade, themes.”

Wall Street is coming off a winning session, buoyed by gains across the “Magnificent Seven” technology stocks and strength in financials and energy names.