Claims, Starts & Walmart: Busy Pre-Market

Thursday, May 21st, 2026

It’s a big morning for data ahead of the stock market open today. Employment, housing and manufacturing data join key earnings reports as investors sort through the importance of higher bond yields and whether a peace agreement is really forthcoming from the Iran War. Early trading is in the red by -0.30% (Dow) to -0.66% (Russell 2000).
 

Jobless Claims Steadily Lower: 209K, 1.78M

Like any normal Thursday morning, Weekly Jobless Claims are hitting the tape today. Initial Jobless Claims ticked down to +209K from a slightly upwardly revised +212K the prior week. These remain on the low side of the range going back to Labor Day of last year — +259K — and late April’s multi-decade low of +190K.

Continuing Claims bumped up a tad, but to the exact headline numbers we saw last week: +1.782 million. The previous week was adjusted downward to 1.776 million, and is now the fourth-straight sub-1.8 million print. This is the first such stretch at these low levels in two years.
 

Housing Starts/Building Permits Improve in April

New Housing Starts for April came in nicely ahead of expectations: +1.465 million seasonally adjusted, annualized units versus +1.42 million anticipated. That said, it’s still the softest month since February; the March revision improved slightly to +1.507 million. Building Permits, conversely, posted its best headline since February: +1.442 million, versus +1.39 million analysts were looking for.

However, the breakdown among different styles of homebuilding is key: all of the gains last month came on the Multi-family side; Single-family homes slid -9% on new starts, -5.5% on permits. Multi-family, on the other hand, rose +14.3% on new starts and +11.5% on permits. High mortgage rates are keeping demand lower for single-family homes; multi-family is ratcheting up production from its lowest levels since 2011.
 

Philly Fed Slips to Negative in May

The May Philly Fed Manufacturing Index is also out this morning. It’s the first negative print of 2026, -0.4%, and below expectations for +19.0. This follows the strongest month since January of 2025 at an unrevised +26.7. Prices paid came down for the month as well, which is something of a deflationary point, while business owners in the country’s 6th biggest city (Philadelphia) see business conditions improving six months from now.
 

Q1 Earnings at a Glance: WMT, AAP

Walmart WMT posted Q1 results this morning, slightly outpacing earnings results by a penny to $0.66 per share, on $177.75 billion in revenues which improved on the Zacks consensus by +1.83% and the year-ago tally of $165.6 billion. Shares are down -3.5% ahead of the opening bell, dialing back some of the biggest-of-the-Big-Box-retailer’s gains of +17.5% year to date. Guidance was a tad shaky, taking higher fuel costs into account. For more on WMT’s earnings, click here.

Advance Auto Parts AAP posted a big earnings surprise in its Q1 report this morning: +97% to $0.77 per share (the Zacks consensus had been $0.39). The company also posted its best sales growth in five years to $2.61 billion, a +2.08% positive surprise above expectations. AAP’s margin recovery turnaround plan appears on-point from this vista. For more on AAP’s earnings, click here.

Williams-Sonoma WSM shares are up +3% on its Q1 earnings release ahead of the open: earnings of $1.93 per share easily surpassed the $1.80 analysts were expecting, while revenues of $1.81 billion narrowly bettered the $1.80 billion in the Zacks consensus. Comps rose +4.8%, with revenue growth leading at its West Elm stores: +8.5%. Shares are up modestly year to date, but off its all-time highs back in February of this year.

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