Like Nicki Minaj once said, pound the alarm: The markets freaked out yesterday after the world’s biggest retailer, Walmart, forecast that inflation fatigue and general uneasiness among shoppers will slow its growth over the next year, stoking fears of a broader slump in consumer spending.

The Dow fell 1% yesterday, the S&P 500 dipped 0.4%, and the Nasdaq declined 0.5% as investors dumped shares across sectors—not just retail, since Walmart’s ~$800 billion business is seen as a microcosm of the entire economy. The megastore’s stock tumbled more than 6% after the company released its lackluster sales guidance:

• Walmart projects 3% to 4% full-year sales growth, below Wall Street’s expectations and well under the 5.1% growth it logged last year.
• It expects operating income to rise by no more than 5.5%, which is half as high as Wall Street’s 11% target. If Walmart’s prediction comes true, it’ll be a steep drop-off from last year’s 8.6% profit growth.

But…Walmart tends to strike a cautious tone at the beginning of the year, leaving room to lift its outlook as the year progresses, analysts noted.

“We are in an uncertain time,” Walmart CFO John David Rainey said on an investor call yesterday, in reference to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which Walmart didn’t factor into its lower-than-expected guidance, according to Rainey. Walmart won’t be “completely immune” from tariffs, he said, since the superstore imports some groceries from Mexico and many general goods from China. But unlike smaller competitors, it can leverage its size to keep suppliers from raising prices too much.

Zoom out: Walmart’s business is still strong. Its stock had been up 77% over the past year prior to yesterday, largely thanks to gains among $100,000+ households that have had to prioritize lower-cost groceries amid inflation. A growth warning from the purveyor of bargain goods could spell trouble for other retailers.—ML

Sen. Mitch McConnell won’t seek reelection in 2026. The 83-year-old Republican from Kentucky will retire at the end of his current term, he announced yesterday, ending a four-decade run in the US Senate. As the longest-serving Senate party leader in US history, McConnell was long considered a power broker who single-mindedly advanced the conservative agenda while hampering the efforts of Democratic administrations. But in recent years, McConnell’s tenure has been marked by clashes with President Trump and speculation about his health after several falls and freezing episodes. Politico called him “the most consequential Republican senator of his generation.”

Trump floats sending DOGE checks to Americans. Speaking at a conference in Miami this week, President Trump proposed taking 20% of the savings from the Department of Government Efficiency’s attempt to cut government spending and giving it to US households in the form of checks. Based on DOGE’s goal of $2 trillion in cuts, that would amount to ~$5,000 per household. Experts caution that DOGE’s goal is virtually impossible to meet, while the checks would likely increase inflation because they count as economic stimulus.

Canada defeated the US in battle for hockey supremacy. In the most anticipated international hockey game in a decade, Canada beat the US 3–2 in overtime of the championship of the first-ever 4 Nations Face-Off on a goal by Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid. With the win, Canada avenged its loss to the US earlier in the tournament and maintained bragging rights over its North American neighbor. The two nations will likely meet again at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.—AE

Live and let Prime. Amazon is taking over creative control of the famed James Bond franchise from its longtime producers, the company announced yesterday.

The deal is a culmination of an off-camera deadlock between Amazon and Barbara Broccoli, who, along with her brother Michael G. Wilson, inherited control of the Bond franchise from their father. The family maintained ironclad control over the IP for more than 60 years.

Pure gold(finger). Under a new joint venture, creative control will go to MGM Studios, which Amazon acquired in 2022 for $8.5 billion, while the two Broccoli family members will remain co-owners in the franchise. It’s a boon for Amazon—the 25 Bond films have made a collective $6 billion at the domestic box office—and a shocking about-face by the Broccolis:

• Broccoli and Wilson previously controlled every creative decision, from casting to dialogue to advertising.
• The two had reportedly clashed with Amazon over the franchise’s future, fearing over-commercialization could weaken the character’s cachet.

Mum’s the word…there’s been no sign of what’s next for 007 since No Time to Die came out in 2021, ending Daniel Craig’s storied run as the British spy. But the deal augurs a new era of Bond that will likely get the Amazon treatment with spin-offs, TV series, and maybe even a Bezos Royale.—CC

Plus-ones are about to get weird. The Protector app, which is like Taskrabbit for private security or Uber with guns, became available in LA and NYC this week, so anyone with a couple grand can hire their own motorcade.

Currently only available on Apple devices, the app hovering around the 14th spot among free travel apps in the App Store behind Uber, Lyft, and most airlines’ apps (it’s beating Spirit). Protector requires users to pay an annual $129 member fee for the ability to book former and active duty law enforcement officers to drive them around.

• The app charges at least $200 an hour for one driver and one guard, and you have to book for at least five hours.
• It also lets users select the attire for the bodyguards: business casual, business formal, or tactical casual—but no rogue western option.

The startup was founded by 25-year-old Nick Sarath, who also runs the neighborhood rent-a-cop app Patrol. Nikita Bier, a former Meta project manager and the creator of the teen social network Gas, said he advised on the app.

Big picture: Following the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Sarath posted that Protector would be rushed to market. Last year, another “Uber with guns” service called BlackWolf said it would expand into Texas, its fourth state since it was founded in 2023.—MM

OpenAI is growing faster than the time it takes ChatGPT to write an apology letter to your neighbor after you backed over their mailbox. The AI giant now has 400 million weekly active users (more than Netflix) as of this month—up 33% from December, COO Brad Lightcap told CNBC.

And it’s not just everyday consumers powering the breakneck growth. Lightcap said the ChatGPT-maker now has 2 million enterprise customers—double the number from September.

But there could be headwinds...ahead. OpenAI is facing increased competition, namely from China’s DeepSeek, which spooked the US tech sector with its emergence this year. It’s also fending off lawsuits and totally real bids to buy the company from friend-turned-rival Elon Musk.—AE

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