The MadBrooks Brief

Red almost everywhere — almost, because energy didn't get the memo.

Aug 20, 2026 · 9:04 PM CT · 2:20 · The MadBrooks Brief | Night | Fri, Aug 21

Red almost everywhere — almost, because energy didn't get the memo. WMT down 9.15% to 103.84. That's the lead, full stop. Walmart getting hit that hard in a single session moves the whole consumer conversation. LLY off 2.81% at 1244.40 — weight loss trade taking pressure. COST down 2.45% at 933.51…

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Red almost everywhere — almost, because energy didn't get the memo.

WMT down 9.15% to 103.84. That's the lead, full stop. Walmart getting hit that hard in a single session moves the whole consumer conversation. LLY off 2.81% at 1244.40 — weight loss trade taking pressure. COST down 2.45% at 933.51, retail bleeding alongside it.

AMZN drops 2.16% to 260.11. BAC off 2.07% at 61.86 — financials weak across the session. JPM down 1.60% to 351.55, same story different ticker.

AAPL down 1.75% to 311.30. TSLA off 1.71% at 345.13.

GOOGL dropped 1.17%. ORCL down 1.21% — tech getting no relief. UNH fell 0.97%, healthcare not a safe harbor today.

Now the one name bucking the tape: XOM up 0.84%. Energy held green while everything else sold off. That's sector divergence. Oil is the floor right now.

Broad market: SPY down 0.84%, QQQ off 0.72%, IWM down 1.34%, DIA down 1.27%. Small caps and industrials took the harder hit. VIX sitting at 16.01 — elevated but not panicking. Futures confirmed the weakness: SPY and QQQ both leaning red into the open.

Asian markets unavailable overnight. Gold data not in the feed.

Nothing on the economic calendar today. Clean tape, no Fed speakers, no data drops — this move is pure price action.

Earnings on deck: BJ before the open, consensus at 1.20 on EPS. UI reports before the bell too, estimate at 4.15. OWLS and ZKH also reporting this morning, ZKH with no estimate posted.

WMT is the number everyone's going to be talking about today. Nine percent in a single session on a mega-cap is not noise. When the largest retailer in the country moves like that, you feel it in consumer sentiment reads for weeks.

Numbers don't lie. People do. Trade accordingly.

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AI generated. Not financial advice.