WalMart Carnage: Stock Plummets Most In 17 Years After Slashing Earnings Guidance, Blames Wage Hikes

Do you see what happens Larry when Wal-mart succumbs to “progressive” pressure and hikes minimum wage? This:

WMT CFO: NEW HIRES TO START AT $10 PER HOUR NEXT YEAR

WMT CFO: 2017 RISE IN WAGES TO COST $1.5B

WMT PLANS REDUCTION IN CAPITAL EXPENDITURES THROUGH FY19

WAL-MART SEES FY2017 EPS DECREASING 6-12% VS FY2016

Yes, the company just slashed its 2017 earnings forecast by up to a whopping 12%… but at least the workers are happy, if not so much the market as WMT stock plunges the most since September 1998, and has lost more market cap than Twitter.

Click on image to enlarge

Carnage:

Click on image to enlarge

Sending the dividend yield to record highs…

Click on image to enlarge

Dropping WMT below $200bn market cap (and AMZN now $56bn larger)…

Click on image to enlarge

We are sure these analysts will be explaining how the market has it all wrong…

Not even the company announcing a just as surprising $20 billion stock buyback is helping it.

Oh and speaking of “happy workers”, now that WMT has just become an activist target, and eliminate any growth CapEx for the next 4 years, expect the company to proceed with the logical next step after it hikes wages: massive layoffs.

Congratulations American workers: you lose again!