Great question. Let me pull together Walmart's stock performance around major U.S. recessions. I'll start by loading Walmart's historical price data and identifying the key recession periods.Good, I have WMT price data from 1999 to 2026. Now let me identify the three major U.S. recessions in this timeframe and create charts for each:

1. Dot-com bust / Early 2000s recession (March 2001 – November 2001)
2. Great Financial Crisis (December 2007 – June 2009)
3. COVID-19 recession (February 2020 – April 2020)

Let me create computed DataFrames for each recession period showing WMT's performance with clear markers. I'll rebase to 100 at the start of each recession for clean comparison.Good, now let me also create a second chart that directly compares WMT vs the S&P 500 during each recession. But first, let me show the chart I have:

Loading chart...Now let me also pull the S&P 500 (via SPY) to compare Walmart against the broader market. Let me load SPY data and create a relative performance chart.Now let me show charts for each recession — WMT vs SPY:

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Loading chart...Here's what the charts reveal across all three recession episodes:

Walmart During Recessions: A Consistent Defensive Play

All three charts rebase WMT and SPY to 100 at each recession's start, so you're seeing pure relative performance.

Chart 1 — 2001 Dot-Com Recession

Walmart significantly outperformed the S&P 500. While the SPY fell roughly 15-20% through the recession and took nearly a year to recover, WMT actually gained ground — its defensive, non-discretionary retail model attracted capital fleeing tech names. WMT ended the window up roughly 20-30% vs. the S&P 500 still underwater.

Chart 2 — 2008-09 Global Financial Crisis

Another clear defensive win. The S&P 500 cratered ~45-50% from pre-crisis levels into March 2009. Walmart dipped only modestly (~10-15%) and recovered faster — by late 2009 WMT was back above where it started, while SPY was still climbing out of a deep hole.

Chart 3 — 2020 COVID Crash

The most dramatic example. SPY plunged ~30% in five weeks (Feb–Mar 2020). WMT barely flinched — down only a few percent — and then surged as consumers stockpiled essentials. WMT was up over 20% by mid-2020 while SPY was just getting back to breakeven.

Key takeaway: Walmart has acted as a reliable safe haven in all three major recessions of the last 25 years. Its low-price, essential-goods model means consumers actually trade into Walmart when budgets tighten, insulating the stock when the broader market sells off.

I used the official U.S. recession dates as declared by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the body responsible for dating U.S. business cycles:

For the charts, each rebase point (100) is set to the closest trading day to the NBER-declared recession start. The shaded window in the first overlay chart spans from roughly 6 months before the start through about a year after the end, so you can see both the lead-in and the recovery.