Stock market today: Markets recover slightly with continued focus on retail sector and consumers | National News

Wall Street recovered slightly early Wednesday as a growing number of large retailers reported sales and earnings, suggesting the American consumer is holding back spending under the weight of persistent inflation and fears of a possible recession.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.4% and the S&P 500 was up 0.3%.

Target shares rebounded early after the Minneapolis-based retail giant reported another quarterly profit decline and released a cautious sales and earnings outlook. Target said it’s grappling with higher costs, including rising thefts, and consumers who have become more cautious about their spending.

Home Depot on Tuesday forecast its first fall in annual sales since 2009, pushing broader markets into negative territory for the day. The country’s largest home improvement retailer has lowered its full-year profit and sales expectations.

Walmart, another indicator of the retail sector and an indicator of overall consumer health, reports its results before the market close on Thursday.

Although the government on Tuesday reported that retail sales rose in April after falling in the previous two months, the data showed that higher prices caused consumers to switch to cheaper brands and refrain from buying non-essential goods, bucking the pandemic trend turned back

Thanks largely to a strong job market, Americans have remained resilient in their spending despite signs of weakness elsewhere in the economy. However, most economists are forecasting that the job market will weaken in the second half of the year after the Federal Reserve made 10 consecutive interest rate hikes to curb inflation.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX gained 0.4% at midday, while Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.1% and France’s CAC 40 was flat.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.8% to close at 30,093.59. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5% to 7,199.20 after a better-than-expected pay rise report. The wage price index rose by 3.7% year-on-year. However, according to some analysts, this could lead to a rate hike in the coming months.

South Korea’s kospi rose 0.6% to 2,494.66. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 2.1% to 19,560.57, while the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.2% to 3,284.23.

Japan’s encouraging GDP data, released earlier in the day, showed consumption picking up again after COVID-19-related restrictions were eased and borders opened to tourists.

Japan’s economy, the third largest in the world, grew 1.6% annually in the quarter ended March, according to the Cabinet Office. That was the strongest GDP growth since April-June 2022, up 1.1%. The main downside was the drop in exports due to sluggish global demand.

“Sluggish external demand remains a concern in the near term,” said Harumi Taguchi, chief economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, adding that growth could slow.

“As real compensation of employees declined at a faster rate, weaker purchasing power will continue to make consumers more selective,” she said.

In energy trading, the reference price for US crude rose 18 cents to $71.04 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, was also up 18 cents at $75.09 a barrel.

In forex trading, the US dollar rose to 137 Japanese yen from 136.36 yen. The euro cost $1.0826, down from $1.0868.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 0.6%, with more than four out of five stocks in the index closing lower. The Dow fell 1% and the Nasdaq slipped.

Kageyama reported from Tokyo, Ott reported from Silver Spring, Maryland.

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