Afternoon Market Update (SWY, TGT, BJ, CHS, XOMAD)

Shares of Safeway Inc shares SWY moved down after Longbow Research analyst Alton Stump downgraded the company from “neutral” to “sell.” The target price for the company is set to be $16. SWY’s shares dipped about 3.7% following the downgrade. Shares of Target Corp TGT and BJ's Wholesale Club BJ fell, after the two companies reporting their results for the latest quarter. TGT’s shares lost about 1.5% after reporting weaker-than-expected Q2 sales. BJ's shares fell more than 4% after it lowered its profit and sales projections for the year. However, shares of Chico's CHS advanced about 7%. The S&P Retail Index (RLX) gained about 1.7%. Shares of Xoma Ltd XOMAD soared more than 1,000% early Wednesday after conducting a 1-for-15 reverse stock split. The company conducted the reverse stock split for boosting its share price in order to meet the NASDAQ compliance rules. Xoma will be trading under its new stock symbol XOMAD for the next 20 trading sessions to reflect the stock split. However, it will go back to its earlier trading symbol of XOMA, after the period. Xoma’s shares dipped about 12% under its new symbol. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG) and the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index (BTK) were both down by more than 0.25%. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.