The sell-off continued for a third day across US markets, with the Dow Jones falling 0.5%, the S&P 500 0.3% and the Nasdaq finishing flat as tech shares rallied once again.
The inflation talk continued to gather steam after the release of the Federal Reserve’s latest minutes, which suggested the interest rate setting committee had quite a strong debate.
The notes discuss the appropriate timing of the removal of the US$120 billion bond-buying program, with the cash rate likely to remain on hold for the foreseeable future.
Bitcoin’s volatility was on full show with the digital asset falling 33% before rising 31% in the same session.
Target smashes expectations
Target’s (NYSE: TGT) position as a pandemic winner and willingness to evolve saw the group report a fivefold increase in earnings per share in the first quarter.
Comparable store sales were up 23% and digital sales 50% on the prior year, with the owned brands division seeing the strongest growth, up 36%.
This suggests those businesses that the company controls, rather than relies on external supply chains, are avoiding inflationary issues. Target shares finished 6% higher.
US stock market movers
These US stocks were among the big movers in Wednesday’s session.
- Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO) up 7.0%
- Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) up 4.9%
- Pinduoduo (NASDAQ: PDD) up 4.0%
- Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) up 3.3%
- eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) down 2.4%
- Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) down 2.5%
- Ralph Lauren Corp (NYSE: RL) down 4.1%
- Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) down 5.9%
Back home on local markets, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is tipped to open broadly flat on Thursday. For all the latest, check out Rask Media’s ASX 200 morning report.
