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U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba gain after Q3 revenue beat

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Walmart ( WMT ) forecasts fiscal 2026 sales below estimates

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Futures down: Dow 0.3%, S&P 500 0.31%, Nasdaq 0.29%

(Updates with results from Alibaba, Hasbro ( HAS ), Walmart ( WMT ))

By Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta

Feb 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures dipped on

Thursday as investors avoided risky bets after another bout of

tariff threats from President Donald Trump, while heavyweight

retailer Walmart ( WMT ) plunged on downbeat fiscal 2026 sales forecast.

Walmart ( WMT ) slid 8.3% in premarket trading after the

world's largest retailer forecast sales for the fiscal year

ending January 2026 below estimates, as it anticipates

inflation-weary consumers to pull back after several quarters of

solid growth.

It dragged down other major retailers such as Target ( TGT )

, Costco Wholesale ( COST ) and Dollar General ( DG ),

which fell between 1.7% and 2.8%.

Trump said on Wednesday he will announce fresh tariffs over

the next month or sooner, adding lumber and forest products to

previously announced plans involving duties on imported cars,

semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.

Since returning to office four weeks ago, Trump has imposed

an additional 10% tariff on all imports from China. He also

announced, and then delayed for a month 25% tariffs on goods

from Mexico and non-energy imports from Canada.

Last week, he unveiled plans to slap reciprocal tariffs on

all countries that have tariffs on U.S. goods.

Traditional safe-haven assets gold and the Japanese

yen trended higher, while Treasury yields - which move

inversely to bond prices - edged lower.

Separately, minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's January

policy meeting showed on Wednesday that Trump's initial policy

proposals raised inflationary concerns at the central bank.

Policymakers agreed they should hold interest rates steady

until it was clear that inflation, largely stalled since the

middle of 2024, would dependably fall to the central bank's 2%

target.

The S&P 500 crawled to a record closing high for the

second time this week on Wednesday, as markets took stock of the

Fed's meeting minutes and Trump's directives.

"Trump continues to announce new policy plans on many

fronts, but broader financial market moves in response to such

plans have not been huge lately," analysts at Nordea wrote in a

note.

"Given all the uncertainties involved, it is too early to

draw definite conclusions on the outcomes."

A weekly jobless claims reading and comments from at least

four Fed officials, including Chicago Fed President Austan

Goolsbee, are due later in the day.

At 07:26 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 136 points,

or 0.3%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 19.25 points, or

0.31%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 63.5 points, or

0.29%.

Palantir Technologies ( PLTR ), which provides governments

with services such as software that visualizes army positions,

fell 4.5% after the Pentagon said on Wednesday it was looking at

potential budget cuts for the fiscal year 2026.

U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba Group advanced 9.8%

after the Chinese e-commerce firm topped expectations for

third-quarter revenue.

Hasbro ( HAS ) advanced 2.3% after the toymaker beat

quarterly profit and revenue estimates.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru;

Editing by Maju Samuel and Shinjini Ganguli)