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Today's big stories

Walmart’s quarterly results beat expectations
Our analyst has finally settled the debate over which portfolio allocation is best, so that solves that then – Read Now
Nvidia posted record-breaking earnings, but its stock still fell

Blue Steal

What’s Going On Here?

Walmart reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Thursday, as the US retailer nabbed customers from right under rivals’ noses.

What Does This Mean?

Like most retailers, Walmart continued to wrestle with supply chain issues last quarter: the company spent around $400 million more on shipping than planned, even chartering its own cargo ships to make sure products arrived on time. And like most retailers, it’s been forced to raise prices to offset some of those rogue costs. But unlike most retailers, Walmart has the sheer size and negotiating clout with suppliers that allowed it to undercut rivals on price, which allowed it to gain market share in groceries and other key areas.

So it follows that Walmart made almost 6% more revenue from its existing US stores last quarter than the year before, and its outlook for 2022 came in better than expected too. To top it off, Walmart announced it’ll buy back $10 billion worth of its own shares this year, which will reduce their supply and push up their price. No surprises here, then: investors sent its shares up 3% after the update.

Why Should I Care?

The bigger picture: Is inflation overblown?
Nearly 90% of all Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart, which means it’s hard not to shop with the retailer. That makes its update a unique insight into how consumer spending is holding up more generally. Walmart’s strong results, then, suggest that high inflation hasn’t necessarily been the deterrent that many economists have warned, and the company’s optimistic forecast suggests it might not be going forward either.

Zooming out: Lucky number 13.
Then again, Walmart is in a particularly strong spot: it sells all sorts of products that Americans need no matter what. Products like those of consumer staples company Nestlé, which reported on Thursday that its organic sales – those excluding the effects of acquisitions and currency swings – grew at their fastest in 13 years last year.

You might also like: How to analyze Walmart’s stock in just two hours.

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Analyst Take

So What’s The Best Portfolio Anyway?

Stéphane Renevier, Analyst

What’s Going On Here?

There’s a long-running debate over which of the three most popular portfolios is the best.

Some investors are 60/40 till they die. It’s the benchmark to beat for asset allocation, after all.

Some swear by the Yale portfolio. It’s arguably more diversified than the 60/40, and also hedges against inflation with allocations to TIPs and real estate.

And some are all in on the all-weather, which was designed to perform in any environment.

But since I wrote about the Yale model a few days ago, I’ve had a lot of you asking exactly which one really is the best.

So here we go: how to implement these three portfolios using exchange-traded funds, and which portfolio comes out on top.

There. Debate over.

Read or listen to the Insight here

Not all assets are crashing right now

Let us guess: your portfolio’s been going through it recently.

After all, the big players are suffering. The S&P 500 is down. The Nasdaq is down. Bitcoin too.

So it might be time to check out the little guys instead. Farming, for one, is doing just fine, while comic books are way up.

They’re both picks from the Alts newsletter, and there’s plenty more where that came from: the Alts pros use original research to spot the next big alternative opportunities.

Looks like it works: their recommendations were up 1.4% last week, even as the rest of the world was feeling the pain.

Find out what you’re missing: join Alts’ 29,000 investors today.

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