Who is benefitting and who is losing from New Digital Sales Tax

Its been a month since the United States Supreme Court ruled to allow US States and municipalities to collect sales taxes from products and services that are purchased from online sellers.  Over the last 20 trading days the shares of Wal-Mart increased by 4.5%. From June 21st to July 18th the shares of the world’s biggest retailer out performed the S&P 500 which increased by 1.2%. 

Its only logical that Wal-Mart’s shares would outperform.  it’s the biggest beneficiary of the court’s decision since the consumer no longer gets a price break when purchasing goods online instead of at their local Wal-Mart store.  Fedex is the biggest loser and its share price decline of 8.1% reflects this. Due to the decision there obviously will be a reduction in the growth rate of online retail sales.  This will result in less items being shipped.

Ebay is also another logical loser with its share price being down by 4.8% versus Wal-Mart.  Many of its independent marketers will be burdened. They will subject to escalating costs due to having to collect sales taxes and distribute them to more than 1400 municipalities.

Finally, the new digital tax is a negative for the stock market.   It reduces the growth rate of the digital economy and the overall PE multiple for tech stocks.  The tax puts a damper on the technology sector which has been leading the market.