Amazon vs. Walmart: Which is capturing the US consumer better?

Yahoo Finance Video and Brian Sozzi

Wed, February 18, 2026 at 2:00 AM GMT+9

In this video:

WMT

-3.41%

AMZN

+1.07%

Walmart (WMT) is riding strong momentum in 2026, surging 20% year-to-date and hitting a $1 trillion market cap. E-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN), on the other hand, is down 14% year-to-date amid mass layoffs.

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company CIO Brent Schutte joins Yahoo Finance executive editor Brian Sozzi and Yahoo Finance senior business reporters Ines Ferré and Brooke DiPalma to break down the battle for US consumers, from groceries to third-party delivery and advertising, and weigh which stock may offer more value in today’s market.

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

Video Transcript

00:00 Speaker A

What is the better buy in retail? Walmart with a ton of momentum behind it, or Amazon, which has lost momentum and is firing people in mass. Brooke, I’m coming back to you here because you also cover Walmart.

00:09 Brooke

Oh, boy. Well, no stock recommendations here, but what I will say is that Walmart over the past few years has really been doubling down to make sure that it drives more profit than it does sales. And that goes to come as it looks to compete ultimately with Amazon when it comes to advertising, especially third-party delivery and that key marketplace that it’s really been doubling down on. But now it’s kind of funny how you see Amazon mentioning more and more of the consumer on their earnings call, more so than they have in the past, especially when they doubled down on that perishable

00:46 Brooke

foods delivery. And now it, you know, when we hear from Walmart, in no means is Walmart building out a data center like Amazon is, but certainly we expect to hear more about how the company is doubling down on that third-party marketplace, that delivery business and ultimately as well that advertising business, especially around Walmart Connect. And so it goes to show how both these companies are really driving or looking to compete in the same way and get the consumer who’s looking for that last-minute good that maybe they forgot to grab at the grocery store for the weekend.

01:21 Speaker A

Brad, if you and I were having this conversation a year ago on on Walmart, I would argue that it was a value stock still despite all of its momentum, but a year later, they’ve added a ton of sales, a ton of market cap. Is Walmart still a value play or is is Amazon something more uh fits the bill as a value play here?

01:41 Brad

Again, I’m not an individual stock analyst, but if I look at the relative PE’s, I think one is cheaper than uh quite a bit than the other and I think that’s Amazon just from a PE perspective. I think the more important thing here is just the state of the US consumer and what Walmart has to say about that. You’ve seen the savings rate drop to uh 3.5%, which tells me that consumers are are spending out of their savings or spending instead of savings. and that’s where I think we’re we’re seeing some of those impacts across the economy. And this is something that I am concerned about. Um I know the high-end consumer has done

02:13 Brad

quite a bit better over the past few years. But if you think about the market right now, it is where the high-end consumer is heavily invested. Um I believe the households in America have their most exposure to stocks ever going back in history. and this to me reminds me a lot of late 1999, 2000 period, where the market is now the risk to the economy, not the opposite way. Uh and so this uh is kind of an area of concern. I’m just watching that consumer spending, what Walmart has to say. Uh but certainly I I don’t know that Walmart at least in my 31 years of doing this and thinking about what value stocks typically are, I don’t think just looking at the the P at trades at, it qualifies to me from a overall just definitional perspective of a value stock.

02:49 Speaker A

Enas, last word to you. Walmart, it they’re going to have to really mess up this year, I think to get the the bulls off of this story. I don’t see them messing up. I mean the company has a ton of momentum.

03:00 Enas

It’s up 20% year to date and you’ve got Amazon that’s down 14% year to date. And Walmart’s revenue, such a big part of it comes from groceries. and yes, the 100k plus cohort that is increasingly buying at Walmart and it doesn’t have the CAPEX spending overhang that Amazon has. So perhaps that’s why it’s done so well this year.

03:23 Speaker A

Great analysis, you all. Have a great rest of the day. I will see you both soon. Appreciate it. And scan the QR code on your screen to check out Yahoo Fin’s prediction markets hub powered by Polymarket.

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