Stocks Surge Amid Retail Jitters and Price Hikes

Holy smokes, stocks are on the rise today, even with retail spending dropping and prices going through the roof!

On Thursday, May 15, U.S. stocks just kept climbing, shrugging off the retail blues. The Dow Jones hit 42,191, up a solid 140 points, or 0.33%. The S&P 500 wasn't far behind, jumping 18.75 points, or 0.32%, to 5,911. But the tech-heavy Nasdaq? It was barely moving, sitting at 19,140, down just 8 points or 0.04%.

Retail sales figures threw a wrench in the works today. April's numbers showed a snail's pace growth of just 0.1%, a sharp drop from March's revised 1.7%. And get this, folks tried to spend before the tariffs hit, fearing price spikes!

Walmart Warns of Skyrocketing Prices

Hold onto your wallets, because Walmart's CFO John David Rainey dropped a bombshell. He said they might have to jack up prices by double digits on some items. No surprise, Walmart's shares, usually a safe bet during inflation, took a hit, falling 1.05%.

Meanwhile, UnitedHealthcare's stock is tanking, down a whopping 13.74%. Why? They're under a criminal investigation for possible Medicare fraud. And guess what? Just a day before this news broke, their CEO Andrew Witty bailed on his job.

Over at Coinbase, a fresh face on the S&P 500, things are chaotic. The stock dropped 6.58% after CEO Brian Armstrong got a $20 million ransom note. But let's be real, the real reason for the dip is likely the SEC breathing down their necks over whether they've been telling the truth about having over 100 million verified users.

That user number is a big deal because Coinbase flaunted it in their 2021 IPO filing to lure in investors.