Wall Street inched toward marginal gains early Wednesday with a focus on the retail sector a day after markets suffered their first losing day in nearly two weeks.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 each ticked up 0.2% before the bell.
Target shares jumped 13.4% after the Minneapolis retailer reported that comparable sales rose for the first time in a year. Target has made a point of trying to attract cash-strapped, inflation-weary customers with bargains, particularly in the grocery aisles.
Target, which beat Wall Street’s profit and sales targets, announced in the spring that it was cutting prices on thousands of necessities ranging from diapers to milk.
Heading in the opposite direction was Macy’s, which fell 6.4% after it suffered yet another sales decline. The department store chain cut its annual revenue forecast due to “a more discriminating consumer” and the need to roll out more discounts to entice them.
Energy companies Arch Resources and Consol Energy announced Wednesday that they were combining in an all-stock merger, sending shares in each company up more than 3%. The combined company, Core Natural Resources, will be a leading producer and exporter of high-quality, low-cost coals, the companies said.
Later this week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will speak at an economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Expectations aren’t high that he will announce anything dramatic on Friday, with nearly everyone expecting the Fed to cut interest rates next month. But there are hopes that he will leave hints about the scope of those cuts.
“We might get a read on how confident or otherwise the Fed is that inflation has been tamed, and from this, markets may project the size and scope of rate cuts we might expect to see,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.
“The Fed chairman’s take on the health of the jobs market will also be interesting to watch.”
In Europe at midday, France’s CAC 40 gained 0.5%, Germany’s DAX rose 0.6% and Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3%.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.3% to finish at 37,951.80. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 reversed course and rose 0.2% to 8,010.50. South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.2% to 2,701.13. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.7% to 17,391.01, while the Shanghai Composite shed nearly 0.4% to 2,856.58.
In Tokyo, Japan’s Finance Ministry reported a 621 billion yen ($4.3 billion) trade deficit in July, as surging global prices pushed imports higher, growing nearly 17% from the previous year. Robust imports underlined better consumer spending amid rising wages. Japan’s exports also grew, rising 10%, to destinations like the U.S. and China.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude added 19 cents to $73.36 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 23 cents to $77.43 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 145.97 yen from 145.13 yen. The euro cost $1.1117, down from $1.1132.
Rate increases by Japan’s central bank helped set off losses for markets around the world because they forced hedge funds to abandon a popular trade, where they borrowed Japanese yen cheaply and invested it elsewhere.
That included the worst day for Japan’s stock market since the Black Monday crash of 1987. The Bank of Japan since then has allayed market jitters by signaling future moves will be gradual.
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