U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping more than 400 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded down 1.42% to 32,191.77 while the NASDAQ fell 1.99% to 11,746.34. The S&P also fell, dropping, 1.76% to 4,017.01.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares fell by just 0.2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Huaneng Power International, Inc. (NYSE:HNP), up 6% and Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE) up 3%.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer discretionary shares dipped 3.4%.

Top Headline

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its first quarter on Wednesday.

Target reported first-quarter FY22 sales growth of 4% year-on-year to $25.17 billion, beating the consensus of $24.37 billion. Adjusted EPS of $2.19 missed the consensus of $3.07.

Target continues to expect FY22 revenue growth of low- to mid-single-digit. The company expects an FY22 operating income margin rate of around 6%.

Equities Trading UP

Decisionpoint Systems, Inc. (NYSE:DPSI) shares shot up 46% to $6.97. DecisionPoint Systems recently reported first-quarter FY22 revenue growth of 22.7% year-on-year to $19.7 million.

Shares of DLocal Limited (NASDAQ:DLO) got a boost, shooting 20% to $23.14 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 sales results.

OTR Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:OTRA) shares were also up, gaining 18% to $12.15. OTR Acquisition, last week, completed its merger vote with Comera Life Sciences.

Equities Trading DOWN

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) shares tumbled 25% to $161.42 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 earnings and also reported a drop in operating income margin rate.

Shares of Visionary Education Technology Holdings Group Inc. (NASDAQ:VEDU) were down 22% to $19.50. Visionary Education recently priced its IPO at $4 per share.

Triumph Group, Inc. (NYSE:TGI) was down, falling 21% to $17.34 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results. The company also issued FY23 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $112.39, while gold traded down 0.6% to $1,808.50.

Silver traded down 1.3% to $21.475 on Wednesday while copper fell 0.8% to $4.2045.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.9%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.5% and Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.1%. The German DAX dipped 0.8%, French CAC 40 fell 0.9% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.5%.

UK’s producer inflation increased 14% year-over-year in April from 11.9% in March, while annual inflation rate accelerated to 9% in April, the highest since 1982. Passenger car sales in the European Union dipped 20.6% year-over-year to 684,506 units in April.

Economics

Housing starts dropped 0.2% from a month ago to an annualized rate of 1.724 million units in April following a revised 2.8% decline in March. Building permits declined 3.2% to an annual rate of 1.819 million in April.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 52-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 20-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker is set to speak at 4:00 p.m. ET.
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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 84,473,440 cases with around 1,027,280 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,127,190 cases and 524,290 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,728,280 COVID-19 cases with 665,270 deaths. In total, there were at least 524,246,130 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,292,850 deaths.