US stock futures steadied on Wednesday after a bruising day for tech stocks, as investors weighed the latest retail earnings and waited for Federal Reserve minutes to provide clues to interest-rate cuts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) and the S&P 500 (ES=F) both hovered just below the flat line before the bell. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) dropped 0.1%, after weakness in the likes of Palantir (PLTR) and Nvidia (NVDA) dragged on the broader market on Tuesday.

The tech-led selloff has put markets on edge, as investors rotate out of riskier stocks into previously lagging sectors amid concerns about the AI boom's staying power.

Attention is now on the next batch of big retail earnings, with Target's (TGT) results the highlight on Wednesday. Target eked out a profit beat and held to its guidance, but pressures from tariffs and a squeezed consumer added up to another downbeat quarter — and will pose challenges for newly announced CEO Michael Fiddelke. Its shares sank 10% in premarket.

Meanwhile, Lowe's (LOW) stock popped after the DIY store chain raised its 2025 forecast as sales returned to growth, easing some concerns after Home Depot's (HD) warning over price rises. Next up are Walmart (WMT) earnings on Thursday, watched for further signs of how companies and consumers are handing President Trump's tariffs.

Read more: The latest on Trump's tariffs

The main event for Wall Street this week, however, lands Friday, when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will deliver remarks at the Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming. Investors are eager for a sense of where policymakers stand on the question of interest rate cuts after economic data this month showed they face a tricky dilemma between a weakening labor market and stubborn inflation.

The release of minutes from the Fed's July's meeting on Wednesday will serve as a curtain-raiser to Powell's speech. Policymakers held interest rates steady at that meeting and stressed no decisions had been made about September, despite Trump suggesting otherwise.

Economic data: FOMC Minutes (July 30-31 meeting); MBA weekly mortgage applications

Earnings: Target (TGT), Baidu (BIDU), Lowe's (LOW), TJX Companies (TJX), Estée Lauder (EL)

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Target (TGT) is tapping a homegrown talent as its next CEO at one of the most pivotal moments in its 63-year history.

The discounter announced that longtime CEO Brian Cornell's heavily groomed No. 2, Michael Fiddelke, will take over as CEO on Feb. 1, 2026. Cornell, who has been CEO of Target since August 2014, will slide into the executive chair position for an undetermined period of time. Fiddelke joined Target in 2003 as an intern and rose through the ranks to CFO and then COO.

\\"I've had this conversation with the board for a number of years, and I've been in the role for 11 years. I'm going into my 12th now. I will actually turn 67 early next year, and I think it's time for me to step back, recharge, spend a lot more time with my family, a lot fewer nights in hotels, and be a great supporter of Michael and the team for the rest of my life,\\" Cornell told me by video call while sitting next to Fiddelke at the company's Minneapolis headquarters.

Fiddelke added, \\"I bleed Target red after 20 years here, and there's nothing more important to me than working with the incredible team that we have to chart the next chapter for Target. I mean, I've seen us in that 20 years at our best. I've seen us not at our best. When we're at our best, we are pretty darn tough to beat.\\"

To students of Target history such as myself, this decision isn't a surprise. For one, Fiddelke has been Cornell's right-hand man for several years now. It has become quite apparent over the past year that he was grooming Fiddelke to take over while also working behind the scenes to get board buy-in. I have gotten to know Fiddelke in recent years. He is a nice fella and has indeed earned the opportunity to sit in the CEO seat.

If this was any other time for Target, the decision would probably be celebrated. It's not often an intern at a company becomes its CEO. The only comparable story I can think of is Walmart (WMT) CEO Doug McMillon going from truck loader at the retailer to CEO.

But Fiddelke will unlikely have a honeymoon period, seeing as he has been there at Target during its past 24 months of struggles (which includes a weak second quarter). People I have talked to wanted an outsider as Target's next CEO, fresh eyes to come in and fix what is wrong (not unlike when Cornell was brought in back in 2014 — his career was mostly spent at Walmart and PepsiCo (PEP)). Fiddelke will be seen as a continuation of a strategy that hasn't been working.

I asked him on the call how candid he plans to be in the early going on the strategy review, which is what all new leaders do. He sounded like he was ready to divert from Cornell's playbook and shake things up. He will have to do just that, and quickly, to win over a likely skeptical Wall Street.

Wall Street is digging into the factors behind this week's selloff in tech stocks, with many seeing it as a timely rotation out of riskier names. There are a few potential triggers, the Financial Times reports:

US tech stocks sold off as warnings that the hype surrounding artificial intelligence could be overdone hit some of the year’s best-performing shares. ...

Traders pinned some of the declines in the US on a critical report on Monday authored by a branch of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Researchers said “95 per cent of organisations are getting zero return” from their investments in generative AI, the technology that has sent US stocks soaring to record highs in recent months.

“The story is spooking people,” said one trader close to a multibillion-dollar US tech fund.

“Just 5 per cent of integrated AI pilots are extracting millions in value, while the vast majority remain stuck with no measurable [profit and loss] impact,” the MIT report said.

The stock drop also came days after OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman signalled an AI bubble might be forming. “Are investors over excited? My opinion is yes,” Altman said late last week.

Read more here (premium)

Here's a look at some of the top stocks trending in premarket trading:

Estée Lauder (EL) stock fell 8% before the bell on Wednesday after the beauty group forecast annual profit below Wall Street estimates, as it grapples with persistent weakness in the US and China markets and tariff uncertainty.

Micron Technology, Inc. (MU) shares slipped 2% in premarket trading Wednesday following news that the US government is looking into taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that received CHIPS Act funding to build factories in the US.

Toll Brothers (TOL) stock fell 3% before the bell after beating Wall Street estimates for its third quarter earnings. A slowdown in new orders weighed on the stock, sending shares down.

A profit warning from James Hardie (JHX, JHX.XA) has fueled worries about recession in the US housing market and sent the Australian building materials giant's stock tumbling on Wall Street before the bell.

Bloomberg reports:

A downbeat outlook on the US housing market from James Hardie Industries sent shares of the building materials producer tumbling the most in five decades, the latest sign of caution around a pillar of the world’s largest economy.

The company’s shares tumbled 28%, the most since November 1973, after its quarterly profit sank and it warned demand for repairs and new construction in North America remains challenging.

“Uncertainty is a common thread throughout conversations with customer and contractor partners,” Chief Executive Officer Aaron Erter said in a statement. Homeowners are deferring large-ticket remodeling projects, and affordability remains the key impediment to improvement in single-family new construction, he added.

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

Gold (GC=F) held a small decline ahead of a key address by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell later this week, which may give fresh clues on the central bank’s monetary path.

Bullion traded at around $3,315 an ounce early in Asia, holding a 0.5% decline from the previous session after the latest efforts to halt the Russia-Ukraine war impacted haven demand. Attention is turning to Powell’s annual address at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday, amid strong expectations the Fed will cut borrowing costs by a quarter point next month. Lower rates are beneficial for gold as it doesn’t pay interest.

Read more here.