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Its a historic day for both Walmart and the Nasdaq. Today, Americas largest brick-and-mortar retailer begins trading on the Nasdaq after its shares spent over half a century on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Heres what you need to know about Walmarts move to the Nasdaq. Whats happened? A week before Thanksgiving, Walmart announced that it would transfer its common stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The move is historic for a few reasons. The first is that Walmart (Nasdaq: WMT) shares have traded on the NYSE since 1972the last 53 years. Walmart went public in 1970, but traded on over-the-counter markets for the first two years before joining the NYSE. That ends today. And Walmarts time on the NYSE was a good one. Over the last 53 years, Walmarts stock on the NYSE has grown more than 536,000% as of yesterdays market close. By moving to the Nasdaq, Walmart is beginning a new chapter of its financial life. But the second reason Walmarts move to the Nasdaq is historic is because of Walmarts current valuation. As of its last trading day on the NYSE yesterday, Walmart had a market cap of more than $905 billion. Its transfer from the NYSE to the Nasdaq represents the largest stock exchange transfer in history. Other companies have moved stock exchanges in the past, but the total value of their shares was nowhere near Walmarts. Why is Walmart moving to the Nasdaq? Walmart cited several reasons for its decision to move from the NYSE to the Nasdaq. But a lot of it has to do with image. Over the past few decades, the Nasdaq has become home for the most technologically progressive, forward-thinking companies on the planet. The Nasdaq is where all of the so-called Magnificent 7 tech companies are traded: Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Meta (Nasdaq: META) Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) All those companies have experienced tremendous growth on the Nasdaq, and they are seen as engines of Americas economic innovation. On the other hand, the New York Stock Exchange, while a respected institution and storied marketplace, is sometimes seen as the exchange for legacy companies, such as big banks in the financial sector and other industrial stocks like automakers and agricultural companies, not to mention brick-and-mortar retailers like Target (NYSE: TGT) and Gap (NYSE: GAP). It seems that Walmart no longer wants to be grouped with those legacy companies (and, in some cases, competitors) and instead wants to be seen as being in the same league with the country’s innovative tech giants. (To be sure, NYSE still gets its share of high-profile tech listings, including companies like Figma and Circle Internet Group, which went public just this year.) Moving to Nasdaq aligns with the people-led, tech-powered approach to our long-term strategy,” Walmarts chief financial officer, John David Rainey, said when announcing the move last month. “Walmart is setting a new standard for omnichannel retail by integrating automation and AI to build smarter, faster, and more connected experiences for customers, while enabling our associates to deliver even greater value at scale. In other words, the move underscores Walmarts desire to be seen more as a tech-focused, AI-first company rather than the worlds largest legacy retailer. As the company said in its announcement: The move to Nasdaq underscores the strong alignment between Walmart and Nasdaq’s shared values: a technology-forward approach, delivering exceptional client value, and redefining their respective industries through innovation. When is Walmart moving to the Nasdaq? Walmart moves to the Nasdaq today, Tuesday, December 9. Walmarts last trading day on the New York Stock Exchange was yesterday. As of the time of this writing, its shares are already trading in premarket trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market Is Walmart getting a new ticker symbol? No. Walmart will continue to retain its historic ticker symbol of WMT. Are stock exchange transfers common? They arent frequent events, but they arent uncommon. As Reuters notes, earlier this year, Shopify (Nasdaq: SHOP) and Kimberly-Clark (Nasdaq: KMB) transferred to the Nasdaq. Other companies, including CSW Industrials (NYSE: CSW) and Virtu Financial (NYSE: VIRT) transferred to the NYSE. But what is uncommon about Walmarts move to the Nasdaq is the sheer size of the company doing so. As The Motley Fool points out, Walmarts current market cap makes it the largest company to ever transfer stock exchanges. Walmart is currently worth around $905 billion. That value dwarfs the value of the next-largest company ever to switch exchanges: chemicals and gas giant Linde (Nasdaq: LIN), which moved to the Nasdaq in 2023 with a then-market value of $180 billion. Before Lindes move, soda maker PepsiCo (Nasdaq: PEP) was the previous largest company to switch exchanges, moving to the Nasdaq in 2017 when it had a market value of around $166 billion. So while stock exchange transfers aren’t rare, Walmarts stock exchange transfer is notable given the size of the company. Could this boost Walmart’s stock price? Thats hard to say. The most significant factor in Walmarts future share performance will continue to be the companys fundamentals. If Walmart continues to perform well, its stock is likely to keep rising. If it starts performing badly, the stock is likely to fall. However, Walmarts move to the Nasdaq could have a psychological effect on some investors, who may see the company now more as a tech-focused growth stock than a legacy retailer. That type of psychological impact could lead to greater interest in the stock, which could push up its share price. Walmart shares could also get a boost if they are included in index funds that are compiled with stocks that mimic the makeup of the largest companies on the Nasdaq. As of today, Walmart is the ninth largest company by market cap on the Nasdaq. How have WMT shares performed in 2025? Walmart shares have performed well so far this year. As of yesterdays close, WMT shares were up more than 25% for the year. At around $113.50 per share, they are near an all-time high. And another potential milestone is also within reach. As of yesterdays close, Walmarts market cap was just over $905 billion. That means the company is only about $95 billion away from becoming a trillion-dollar giant. The companys stock price now needs to rise only about 10.5% more to cross that milestone. Walmart is clearly hoping it can do that on the Nasdaq.
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E-Commerce
Rare earth minerals are so ubiquitous and critical to much of todays technology, that tonights dinner might not have made it to the table without them. And according to USA Rare Earth CEO Barbara Humpton, for decades, the world has sat back and let China become the sole supplier of these minerals, even as the country has used its dominance in this market as a geopolitical game piece. We believe its time to take the game piece off the board,” Humpton said at last months World Changing Ideas Summit, cohosted by Fast Company and Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. USA Rare Earth is wholly dedicated to bringing rare earth metals mining to the U.S., and changing this dynamic is humanly possible, says Humptonthough it will require the support of governments, academia, and private industry. “We’re gonna have to use some real strategy to actually turn the tide,” she says. It may be difficult, but there are already some early signs of progress, as governments that include the U.S., Japan, and the European Union have collaborated to agree on supporting a rare earth supply chain beyond China. Getting academia involved to educate students in magnet-making and rare earth processing is also a priority, Humpton says, along with securing the support of major industries that rely on these minerals, like the automotive sector. A good chance to turn this around According to Humpton, many countriesthe U.S. includedwere perfectly happy to let China dominate this market, because it was cheaper and less messy for them. But Chinas behavior in recent years has led to this moment, she says, adding that there are many benefits to bringing this type of mining to the U.S., including the potential for economic development, and addressing some environmental concerns to mitigate consequences and utilize cleaner extraction techniques. Because we are in an area where it’s a relatively small market, a relatively small number of companies, we have a good chance to turn this around, she says. If we don’t get started, we’ll never get done.
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E-Commerce
Like many American cities, the streetscape in downtown Brooklyn was for a long time very heavy on the street: a great place to park a car or drive through. But over the past 20 years, the area itself has gone from being a 9-to-5 shopping and business district to one where a growing number of people live 24-7. Since 2004, more than 22,000 housing units have been added to the neighborhood, changing its character so much that its old streetscape just wasn’t cutting it. “There was a real evolution of the neighborhood,” says Regina Myer, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP), a business improvement district representing the area’s business owners, shopkeepers, and, increasingly, residential developers. “Frankly, the construction fences were down, and it was really time to look at the public realm afresh.” So in late 2018, DBP hired the urban design and architecture firms WXY and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to come up with some new ideas for Downtown Brooklyn’s streetscape. Myer says her organization wanted “infrastructure that really focused in on the pedestrian and mobility, shared streets, increased biodiversity, and also really making sure this was a bold plan for Brooklyn, that it didn’t look like something generic.” [Photos: courtesy Downtown Brooklyn Partnership] Now, after seven years of planning and prototypes, the designs have been fully installed. As these before-and-after images show, the transformation has been dramatic. The formerly congested streets of downtown Brooklyn have been augmented with planters, bollards, street bistro seating, and other traffic calming measures, as well as increased greenery and public open space. Redesigned tree pits add a larger and more refined space for street trees to grow, and curving benches follow cobblestone paving that hugs the edge of the sidewalk. Compare to the preexisting street furniture, which Myer calls “mean,” the new spaces invite pedestrians to sit and experience the city around them. [Photo: Hai Zhang/Downtown Brooklyn Partnership] Prototyping public space This work came about incrementally at first. WXY and BIG’s design guidance was first tested on the streetscape outside a Studio Gang-designed residential tower that was completed in 2021. Working with the city’s Department of Transportation during the project’s mid-pandemic construction, DBP convinced the city to allow sidewalks on two sides of the building to be widened to make space for these new streetscape amenities as an experimental pilot project. The resulting streetscape sparked a desire for other, more officially sanctioned improvements. A second pilot project was then built outside the city’s first all-electric skyscraper, and officials were fully on board. “They liked it so much that they actually asked us to go through the [Public Design Commission] process for a plan for the entire neighborhood,” Myer says, referring to the path for making improvements to public and civic spaces in the city. [Photos: courtesy Downtown Brooklyn Partnership] This work led to the 2021 release of a Public Realm Action Plan covering more than 40 blocks in the area. In 2023, the mayor’s office dedicated $40 million in funding to put the plan into action. “The prototyping process really worked for us,” Myer says. And in the four years since the plan was releasedrelative light speed in the realm of public space projectsit has materialized on sidewalks and shared streets across downtown Brooklyn. Bright yellow planters now sit in the spaces where cars once parked, carving out niches for outdoor seating and dining. Teardrop-shaped tree planters add flourish to the edges of sidewalks where trash once gathered. Swooping benches teem with life along streets packed with an increasing mix of uses. [Photos: courtesy Downtown Brooklyn Partnership] This could be just the start of a broader transformation in the area. WXY and BIG’s design has now become a system that developers can use to improve the streetscape of future projects. Myer says the plan was strategically minimal in its proposed interventions. The redesign requires little large-scale construction, utilizing existing street poles, for example, and making the most of the existing width of the sidewalk. Aside from the two pilot projects, no other sidewalks were extended, “because you know how gnarly that can get,” Myer says. The plan has sailed through approvals and construction, and downtown Brooklyn’s streetscapes are almost unrecognizable from what they looked like just a few years ago. Myer calls it an effort that appeals across the spectrum, from business owners to building tenants to the growing residential population to visitors and tourists. “What we really were seeking here was to use our existing space better for people,” she says. [Photos: courtesy Downtown Brooklyn Partnership]
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E-Commerce
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