Walmart earnings in focus, Caesars stock surges, Moderna FDA review

Yahoo Finance Video

Thu, February 19, 2026 at 5:57 AM GMT+9

In this video:

WMT

-1.73%

CZR

+13.03%

MRNA

+6.08%

Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Brooke DiPalma and Market Domination host Josh Lipton take a look at some of Wednesday’s trending tickers and stories.

Moderna (MRNA) stock is climbing after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed to review the company’s new flu shot.

Caesars Entertainment (CZR) stock is surging after the company topped fourth quarter earnings expectations.

Walmart (WMT) is in focus ahead of the company’s anticipated fourth quarter earnings report on Thursday.

To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination.

Video Transcript

00:00 Speaker A

Yahoo Finance’s Brooke DePalma joins me here for a look at Moderna, Caesars Entertainment, and Walmart, and we will start here with Moderna. That stock getting a lift after the US Food and Drug Administration agrees to review the drugmaker’s first flu shot of the season. So this one reading up on it Brooke, so the FDA will review uh Moderna a Moderna flu shot made with MRNA technology. And I guess this reverses actually a previous decision.

00:29 Brooke DePalma

Yeah, on February 10th from what I understand, shares fell around 2% after Moderno published the FDA’s refusal to file letter ultimately pulling that stock back. But despite that year to date Moderna has done well because of other drug innovation within the pipeline and that really has had investors optimistic so far in 2026. Now, this a bit of a boost here at more than 6% because the company announced that the FDA once again has reversed that course, will approve. We are here across the streets, some optimistic takes. TD Coin, largely though a hold underperform. Uh taking a step back, there’s 20 holds, four buys and three sells on the street. And we’re hearing some rhetoric of those analysts that are on the sidelines including TD Coin analysts, Tyler Van Buren. He’s largely saying that there’s still some puts and takes that need to happen in order to see this fully come through.

01:14 Speaker A

Yeah, reports noting company and the agency agree to move forward with a traditional review of the shot. I guess for folks age 50 to 64. And then consider this accelerated approval for for uh folks age 65 and older. And the key for Moderna, as you know there Brooke, is trying to diversify away from that COVID business.

01:34 Brooke DePalma

Exactly. Especially if there are less people getting those vaccines.

01:39 Speaker A

Next up, check out Caesars Entertainment, seeing gains as its fourth quarter earnings surpassed expectations. So casino operator Brooke, they did report same store just Ebitda for Q4 that beat estimates. Bloomberg saying here, quelling fears that softer low-income consumer demand and bad weather would impact results.

02:02 Brooke DePalma

Yeah, and that was part of the call that they really focused on. They were saying that you did have those weather events that did hit visitation. Uh CEO saying on the call that you had costs associated with promotional events that were happening during those periods where people weren’t going saying to the casinos, they weren’t going out and that definitely is something that they can’t really recoup here. So that certainly took a toll on the quarter. Also, they said as you look ahead, the outlook for Las Vegas, they do expect trends and into improve sequentially throughout the year driven by stabilizing leisure trends and a strong group and convention calendar also within the region. But largely we did have a note from Macquery. they reiterated uh their uh rating on the stock. And they did note there that they are seeing solid casino demand. They’re seeing that improving digital business as well. That’s something to look out for that I casino digital platform and also that real estate business within Las Vegas has to do better here.

02:59 Speaker A

Yeah, most of the street do like this one, but what a rough ride. I mean, stock’s down more than 40% of you over the past 12 months.

03:07 Brooke DePalma

Right.

03:09 Speaker A

Finally, Walmart, let’s look at that one. Company gearing up now reports fourth quarter earnings on Thursday. This will mark the first earnings report under new CEO John Furner. What are you going to be listening for, Brooke?

03:26 Brooke DePalma

Yeah, well, lots of first. The stock’s actually down about 2% today as we make our way to that report out tomorrow morning. But not only is it the first one under CEO John Furner, but in addition to that, this is the first time that that the company’s reporting after across that $1 trillion market cap. On top of that, it’s the first time the company’s reporting since it relisted on the Nasdaq. And so first, many first for Walmart despite being this traditional retailer, Wal largely Wall Street still expects the company to beat expectations as it has. It’s beat earnings about seven out of eight times over the past eight quarters. And what we’re exactly waiting to hear from is like promotions and grocery business and improved merchandise. That’s what Wall Street will really be looking for to see if it paid off yet again, are high-income shoppers still going to Walmart more and more these days.

04:06 Speaker A

This stock is already up, by the way, nearly 15% this year and look at the love on the street. 92% of analysts who cover this one say yes, Walmart’s a buy.

04:21 Brooke DePalma

Yeah, and that’s what we’ve been hearing. Walmart has been able to diversify itself away from just being a traditional retailer. Now it’s in the tech game. People even sizing it up not not against Target anymore, but against Amazon. And so it’ll be interesting to see the way that John Furner takes this business into 2026 and really sort of thinks of it as a tech player as opposed to just that retailer.

04:47 Speaker A

All right, thank you Brooke. We’ll be watching.

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