Wal-Mart shares gain for the first time in four sessions on Monday, retailer to offer free two-day shipping starting on January 31st

Free-of-charge two-day shipping on a minimum order of $35 beginning on January 31st is to be offered to customers, according to a statement by Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT). It is yet another attempt by the retail chain to respond to the Prime shipping program offered by Amazon.com Inc. This new program is to replace “Shipping Pass”, Wal-Marts current two-day shipping offer for which clients are charged $49 per year as a membership fee.

Wal-Mart shares closed higher for the first time in the past four trading sessions on Monday. The stock went up 1.16% ($0.76) to $66.42, with the daily high and the daily low being at $66.48 and $65.63 respectively. In the week ended on January 29th the shares of the retail chain lost 2.26% of their market value compared to a week ago, which marked the fifth drop in the past six weeks and also the worst performance since the week ended on November 20th. However, the stock has pared its slump to 3.91% so far during the current month, following a 1.86% drop in December. For the entire 2016, Wal-Mart shares gained 12.76%.

“In todays world of e-commerce, two-day free shipping is table stakes. It no longer makes sense to charge for it”, Marc Lore, the head of e-commerce operations at Wal-Mart and also a former head of on-line retailer Jet.com, said, cited by Reuters.

Lores decision to remove the membership fee comes in unison with a larger effort by Doug McMillon, Wal-Marts CEO, to trim the distance to e-commerce competitors such as Amazon.com.

The free shipping offer will be valid for more than 2 million items, including household essentials, cleaning supplies, baby products and other frequently ordered goods such as peanut butter and cereal. To fill orders like the latter, the worlds biggest retailer intends to utilize new on-line warehouses throughout the United States, while also expecting to dispatch many of the above mentioned items within a day.

Additionally, the membership fee for existing members of Wal-Marts “Shipping Pass” program will be completely refunded.

Daily and Weekly Pivot Levels

With the help of the Camarilla calculation method, todays levels of importance for the Wal-Mart stock are presented as follows:

R1 – $66.50
R2 – $66.58
R3 (Range Resistance – Sell) – $66.65
R4 (Long Breakout) – $66.89
R5 (Breakout Target 1) – $67.16
R6 (Breakout Target 2) – $67.28

S1 – $66.34
S2 – $66.26
S3 (Range Support – Buy) – $66.19
S4 (Short Breakout) – $65.95
S5 (Breakout Target 1) – $65.68
S6 (Breakout Target 2) – $65.56

By using the traditional method of calculation, the weekly levels of importance for Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT) are presented as follows:

Central Pivot Point – $66.22
R1 – $67.17
R2 – $68.67
R3 – $69.62
R4 – $70.56

S1 – $64.72
S2 – $63.77
S3 – $62.27
S4 – $60.76