U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones index falling more than 300 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.85% to 42,314.31 while the NASDAQ fell 0.35% to 19,074.77. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.49% to 5,911.59.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose by 0.7% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, health care stocks dipped by 1.1%.

Top Headline

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) reported weaker-than-expected first-quarter results.

Target registered adjusted earnings per share of $1.30, missing analysts' consensus estimate of $1.64. Quarterly sales of $23.85 billion (down 2.8% year over year) missed the Street view of $24.32 billion.

Target lowered its FY2025 adjusted EPS guidance from $8.80–$9.80 to $7.00–$9.00 versus the $8.48 estimate and saw a sales decline in the low single digits. Target also revised its FY2025 GAAP EPS guidance from $8.80–$9.80 to $8.00–$10.00.

Equities Trading UP
           

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $62.48 while gold traded up 0.7% at $3,307.90.

Silver traded up 0.7% to $33.410 on Wednesday, while copper rose 0.6% to $4.6835.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.1%. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.1%, Germany's DAX 40 gained 0.1% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.4% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei falling 0.61%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 0.62%, China's Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.21% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.51%.

Economics

U.S. mortgage application volumes declined by 5.1% from the previous week in the week ending May 16.

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