Wall Street stocks were in the red early on Wednesday as investors thumbed over earnings from more of the country’s largest retailers.
As of 1520 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.38% at 36,003.70, while the S&P 500 was 0.23% weaker at 4,689.87 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.26% softer at 15,932.12.
The Dow Jones opened 138.52 points lower on Wednesday, erasing gains recorded in the previous session as a better-than-expected retail sales report gave sentiment a boost.
Retailers were again in focus on Wednesday, with market participants digesting quarterly earnings from two of the nation’s biggest firms.
Target topped earnings estimates for its fiscal third quarter, driven by Halloween and back-to-school sales, but shares slipped in pre-market after the big-box retailer said it had absorbed higher costs instead of passing them on to customers in a move that could potentially squeeze margins, while home improvement outfit Lowe’s also got a shot in the arm after posting earnings that easily beat expectations on the Street and raised its full-year sales forecast.
Elsewhere in the corporate space, Visa shares slumped after Amazon stated it would cease to accept payments made via its UK-issued credit cards from 2022, while Boeing was in the green after the company received a $9.0bn order from Alaska Air for its 737 MAX aircraft.
Scheduled for after the close, chipmaker Nvidia and audio products manufacturer Sonos will both report earnings.
On the macro front, the Mortgage Bankers Association revealed that total mortgage application volume fell 2.8% week-on-week as rising mortgage interest rates continued to take their toll on demand. Refinance demand was hit particularly hard, down 5% for the week and 31% year-on-year, as the average contract interest rate 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances increased to 3.20% from 3.16%. Mortgage applications to purchase a home rose 2% for the week but were 6% lower than the same week twelve months earlier.
Still on data, housing starts slipped 0.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.52m units in October, according to the Commerce Department, while permits for future homebuilding increased 4.0% to 1.650m units last month.
Federal Reserve members Michelle Bowman, Loretta Master, Mary Daly, Chris Waller, Charles Evans and Raphael Bostic will all deliver speeches throughout the course of the day.
