New York, Jan 15, 2026, 16:46 EST — After-hours.
- Walmart shares last down about 0.7% after hours following a Supreme Court ruling in India tied to the Flipkart deal.
- A securities filing showed Walmart officer Donna Morris planned a share sale under a pre-set trading plan.
- Next dates on the calendar: Nasdaq-100 inclusion on Jan. 20; Walmart’s fiscal Q4 results due Feb. 19.
Walmart Inc shares slipped in after-hours trading on Thursday after India’s Supreme Court ruled that Tiger Global must pay tax on its 2018 sale of a Flipkart stake tied to Walmart’s takeover of the Indian e-commerce firm. The retailer’s shares were last down 0.7% at $119.20.
The court decision is a reminder that India can still tighten the screws on treaty-based tax structures, a live issue for foreign funds and cross-border M&A. Flipkart sits at the heart of Walmart’s growth pitch outside the United States, and it competes with Amazon there.
The timing is awkward: Walmart heads into a week with an index add that can stir short-term flows, and investors are already looking toward its Feb. 19 earnings update. Headlines that land in between, even if they are legal or procedural, tend to get priced fast.
A bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan set aside a 2024 Delhi High Court order that had backed Tiger Global’s claim it was exempt under the India–Mauritius double-taxation treaty, the Indian Express reported. It said an advance rulings authority had earlier called the structure a “preordained arrangement created for the purpose of tax avoidance.” 1
Reuters reported the Supreme Court found Tiger Global’s transaction was an “impermissible tax avoidance arrangement,” leaving the U.S. investment firm facing a tax bill and penalties that were not immediately clear. The dispute centers on Tiger’s $1.6 billion sale of a Flipkart stake to Walmart as part of the retailer’s $16 billion acquisition in 2018. “The decision marks a watershed moment in Indian taxation paradigm,” said Tarun Jain, a Supreme Court tax lawyer, while the government’s top lawyer, N. Venkataraman, called it a judgment “watched today all over the world, not just domestically.” 2
Foreign companies have long complained about India’s tax uncertainty and the years of litigation that can follow, and the Tiger Global fight sits alongside other high-profile disputes that have ensnared multinationals, Reuters wrote. Cases involving Volkswagen and Vodafone have drawn global attention to the stakes. 3
Elsewhere, Walmart launched its first drone delivery service in the Houston region on Thursday, teaming up with Wing, a delivery company owned by Alphabet, the Houston Chronicle reported. Wing’s chief business officer, Heather Rivera, said the service is “an incredibly convenient and very, very fast way to get what you need, when you need it.” 4
A Form 144 filing dated Jan. 14 showed Walmart officer Donna Morris planned the sale of up to 9,384 shares, worth about $1.13 million, through Fidelity Brokerage Services. The filing said the trade would be made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan adopted on Sept. 22, 2025 — a pre-arranged trading plan meant to reduce insider-trading concerns. 5
Nasdaq said earlier this month that Walmart will replace AstraZeneca in the Nasdaq-100 before the market opens on Jan. 20. The Nasdaq-100 tracks 100 of the biggest non-financial firms listed on Nasdaq, and index-tracking funds typically rebalance around such changes. 6
Walmart’s corporate events schedule lists its fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter earnings release for Feb. 19, with a live call scheduled for 7 a.m. Central time. Investors will be listening for any reset in the outlook for U.S. shoppers and for updates on international businesses such as Flipkart. 7
But the Indian ruling is aimed at Tiger Global, not Walmart, and it is still unclear whether it carries any direct financial hit for the retailer. The bigger risk is a chill in deal structures and investor appetite in India — or a fresh wave of tax cases — just as Walmart tries to keep attention on operations and margins.
For now, traders will watch how Walmart trades into Friday’s session, then into the Jan. 20 index shift, with any further court developments in India a wildcard. After that, the next hard catalyst is the Feb. 19 earnings report and call.
