US stocks mostly slid on Wednesday, continuing a bruising stretch for tech stocks as investors weighed the latest retail earnings and assessed Federal Reserve minutes for clues on interest-rate cuts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) closed slightly higher, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) slipped 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) led the losses, declining about 0.7%. The Nasdaq had been down nearly 2% earlier in the session before recovering. After a nearly 10% drop on Tuesday, Palantir (PLTR) fell another 1% in afternoon trade after slipping as much as 9% earlier in the day.

The tech-led sell-off 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.

Meanwhile, Wednesday's release of minutes from the Fed's July meeting showed the two policymakers who voted against the decision to leave rates unchanged appeared largely alone in that opinion.

Attention is also on the latest 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 6%.

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 lands on 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 interest rate cuts after economic data this month revealed a tricky dilemma between a weakening labor market and stubborn inflation.

Palantir (PLTR) shares dropped another 1% on Wednesday following a sharp 9% slide on Tuesday. But retail investors saw the drop as a buying opportunity.

According to data provided to Yahoo Finance from Vanda Research, small investors poured over $59 million into Palantir during Tuesday’s sell-off, marking the biggest single-day retail inflow in a week. That came on top of another $40 million in inflows the day before.

The surge in retail demand highlights a classic “buy the dip” mentality that has dominated markets since the April bottom. In the days leading up to the sell-off, retail flows had been steady but more modest, averaging in the $20 to $30 million range, according to Vanda. The jump in activity suggests everyday traders were not scared off by the stock’s sudden slide. Instead, they leaned in.

But even with retail piling in, the stock still fell hard. That divergence underscores a familiar market reality: while retail can be a powerful force, institutional selling pressure often sets the tone.

\\"Retail has gotten to be such a huge percentage of the market in terms of day-to-day trading,\\" Interactive Brokers chief strategist Steve Sosnick told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday. \\"But if a series of institutions decide to reallocate their portfolio holdings, you’re standing in the way of a much larger piece of momentum.\\"

\\"Collectively, a whole lot of small traders can push back, but if [institutions] are relentless about the selling, that’s going to move the market lower.”

Sosnick called Palantir’s 9% plunge a “shocking move down,” but also pointed out that the stock’s meteoric rise has left it trading at \\"about as expensive of a stock as we’ve seen.\\"

Yahoo Finance's Ines Ferre reports:

James Hardie (JHX) stock tumbled 35% on Wednesday as the maker of high-end home siding pointed to a weak US housing market and homeowners reluctant to spend on big projects.

The stock, listed in the US and Australia, saw its biggest one-day drop since 1973, according to Bloomberg data. The company's profit declined 28% year over year during its fiscal first quarter. Net sales tumbled 9% over the same period.

\\"Uncertainty is a common thread throughout conversations with customer and contractor partners,\\" CEO Aaron Erter said during the company's earnings call.

James Hardie pointed to \\"softer demand,\\" citing a slowdown in single-family construction activity, especially in the southern part of the US.

Read more here.

Minutes from the Federal Reserve's July meeting showed the \\"majority\\" of officials were more concerned about the upside risk to inflation than downside risks to the Fed's mandate for maximum employment.

\\"Regarding upside risks to inflation, participants pointed to the uncertain effects of tariffs and the possibility of inflation expectations becoming unanchored,\\" the minutes read. \\"In addition to tariff-induced risks, potential downside risks to employment mentioned by participants included a possible tightening of financial conditions due to a rise in risk premiums, a more substantial deterioration in the housing market, and the risk that the increased use of AI in the workplace may lower employment.\\"

Read more about the Fed minutes here.

Citi head of US equity trading strategy Stuart Kaiser noted on Tuesday that the recent pain the stock market has \\"remained localized.\\"

And that's holding true on Wednesday too despite a roughly 1% decline in the Nasdaq Composite. The pain is mostly in technology and other related areas of the market with eight of 11 sectors in the S&P 500 (^GSPC)outperforming the benchmark index.

While the size of tech in the index is pulling down the overall S&P 500 there are actually still 265 stocks in positive territory with a little over two hours left in the trading session.

For now the rotation in the market isn't shaking a bullish stance from Kaiser who remains positive on US equities with a \\"quality preference.\\"

Below is a look at the sector action thus far in Wednesday's trade.

Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley reports:

Google (GOOG, GOOGL) announced its latest line of Pixel smartphones on Wednesday as part of its Made By Google event in New York City on Wednesday.

The Pixel 10 lineup includes four phones: the Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold. The company also showed off its newest smartwatch, the Pixel Watch 4.

The devices get Google’s latest Gemini AI capabilities, including the company’s new Magic Cue for its smartphones and enhanced smart replies for the watch.

Starting at $799, the entry-level Pixel 10 now comes with three rear cameras, up from two. That includes a 5x telephoto camera. Inside, the 6.3-inch phone gets Google’s latest Tensor G5 processor, 12GB of RAM, and upwards of 256GB of storage.

The Pixel 10 Pro starts at $999 and gets a sharper 6.3-inch display and more-advanced triple-camera setup. And while the phone packs the same Tensor G5 processor as the standard Pixel 10, the Pro sports 16GB of RAM rather than 12GB and offers up to 512GB of storage.

Read more here.

Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian reports:

Rental car firm Hertz (HTZ) struck a deal with Amazon Autos (AMZN) on Wednesday to sell some of its used car inventory. The company said this will make it easier for customers to purchase cars from its fleet.

Starting today, customers can search Amazon Autos to browse, finance, and purchase from thousands of used Hertz fleet vehicles from brands like Ford, Toyota, Chevrolet, Nissan, and others. Hertz Car Sales, the rental car firm's used car sales arm, will be the first fleet dealer on Amazon Autos.

Hertz said sales will begin in the Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Seattle metro areas, with plans to expand to Hertz Car Sales' 45 locations nationwide. After customers complete their purchase online, they can pick up the vehicles at Hertz locations in those cities.

Read more here.

Yahoo Finance's Francisco Velasquez reports:

Nvidia's (NVDA) upcoming earnings day may boil down to one key question: Will China be part of its outlook?

\\"If NVDA were to include China in its guidance, we believe it would contribute an incremental $2-3 billion in revenue,\\" KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst John Vinh wrote in a new note.

Vinh expects strong Q2 results, driven by demand for Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs. But he warned that guidance for Q3 could be conservative, given uncertainty around US export licenses to China.

Still, KeyBanc reiterated its Overweight rating and lifted its price target to $215 from $190, pointing to Nvidia's central role in the AI boom and supply-demand dynamics that remain firmly in its favor.

Read more here.

Tuesday's market action was all about isolated selling in some of the market's biggest winners.

Wednesday's early session has brought more of the same, as Big Tech is clearly leading the selling action once more.

After a nearly 10% drop on Tuesday, Palantir (PLTR) fell another 7% in early trade. Meanwhile, AI chip leaders Nvidia (NVDA) and Broadcom (AVGO) each dropped more than 3%.

President Trump on Wednesday called on Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to resign as the public pressure on the central bank continues to build.

\\"Cook must resign, now!!!\\" Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social Wednesday morning with a link to a Bloomberg report on a letter sent by Bill Pulte. The Federal Housing Finance Agency head has reportedly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Cook over a pair of mortgages.

Pulte wrote in a letter dated Aug. 15 that Cook “falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statute.”

The President's call for Cook to resign comes as pressure on the Fed continues amid ongoing changes on the Fed's Board of Governors.

Read more here.

US stocks were mixed 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 (^DJI) was up about 0.1%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) slipped about 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell roughly 0.4%, after weakness in the likes of Palantir (PLTR) and Nvidia (NVDA) dragged on the broader market on Tuesday.

Here's a look at how Wall Street is reacting to a burst of earnings reports ahead of the opening bell on Wednesday:

Target (TGT) stock dived more than 10%, facing its worst sell-off since early April. The retailer cleared a low bar of earnings expectations, but comparable sales continued to fall during the quarter.

Lowe's (LOW) stock rose 2.5%. The home improvement retailer reported a return to same-store sales growth, echoing positive results from Home Depot (HD) on Tuesday. Home Depot stock fell 1.3% before the bell.

Estée Lauder (EL) shares fell 5%. The beauty company's annual profit forecast disappointed and executives said they expect a $100 million headwind from tariffs.

Baidu (BIDU) shares edged 0.2% lower. The Chinese search engine company reported a drop in second quarter revenue as strong growth in cloud services was offset by weakness in its core advertising business.

Toll Brothers (TOL) stock added 0.45%. The homebuilder reported an earnings and revenue beat on Tuesday afternoon, though new orders were less than analysts' expected.

La-Z-Boy (LZB) stock tanked 20% after the company missed estimates amid soft demand. Sales for its Joybird furniture brand declined 14%.

Read more live coverage of corporate earnings here 

Hertz (HTZ) stock rose over 10% after the car rental company announced it is teaming up with Amazon (AMZN) to sell pre-owned vehicles.

Customers will be able to browse Hertz used car sales on Amazon, purchase vehicles online, and then pick them up at select Hertz locations. It will initially be offered in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Seattle, with plans to expand to 45 locations nationwide.

Hertz sells pre-owned cars in addition to renting them out. The company is in the midst of a turnaround, and shares have outperformed this year with a 42% year-to-date rise.

Read more here.

What would it take for Intel (INTC) to turn its business around? Yahoo Finance's Hamza Shaban digs into that question in today's Morning Brief.

Caught flatfooted by the explosion of AI, analysts have called on the ailing company to get out of the chip manufacturing business or reconsider its approach to its third-party chip foundry.

As the nation's last premier chipmaker, Intel's standing goes beyond its modest market cap. The company's importance is tied to national security interests and increasingly relevant discussions about technological sovereignty and an AI arms race.

In that context, it's easier to see why the White House would take such an interest in Intel — literally and figuratively. The Trump administration is in discussions to take a roughly 10% stake of the company, according to multiple reports, becoming the chipmaker’s largest shareholder by turning billions in CHIPS Act grants into partial ownership.

But the government potentially using funding for equity goes beyond the money. It signals the administration's ambitions to revive domestic semiconductor manufacturing, even as such a deal challenges free market principles around private sector decision making and the free flow of capital.

Read more here.

Continuation funds have become hugely popular among America's biggest private fund managers this year.

Yahoo Finance's David Hollerith breaks down why, and exactly how they work:

One of the hottest places in private markets this summer is in the secondary market, where a record amount of big funds and their customers struggling to exit positions are finding a way out.

Welcome to continuation funds or vehicles, also known as \\"CVs.\\"

A good chunk of this year's activity in that space has so far come from private fund managers, most of all those in private equity. The vehicles allow fund managers to flip older assets from their maturing funds into new, fresher pools of capital. Funds do this because they don't think they've gotten enough value from their older assets.

The structure style has largely been normalized by the private equity market, according to Jefferies. Not without a history of controversy, continuation funds have so far proven to be one of the fastest-growing areas of the secondaries market this year, accounting for $41 billion worth of transaction volume. ...

Traditional private equity funds raise money from large institutional investors in order to buy out companies. The next step is to improve margins so that they can eventually take these companies public or sell them and return profits to their investors.

That model has faced difficulty in recent years.

Read more here.

Palantir stock (PLTR) looks like it may extend its losing streak to six trading days after reaching an all-time high.

Shares fell 3% in premarket trading on Wednesday after a 9% decline on Tuesday. Since hitting $186.97 per share on Aug. 12, the stock is now trading around $153, putting it 18% off its record closing high.

Investors rotating out of large-cap tech names and a bearish report from short seller Citron Research have weighed on the stock.

Read more here.

Target's (TGT) results on Wednesday morning weren't as shockingly bad as for the first quarter, but the retailer is still struggling to find its place in the new economic norm of more discerning shoppers.

Shares in the US retail giant sank 10% in premarket trading as the announcement of a new CEO still left investors wanting more.

Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi reports:

Target's second quarter earnings narrowly surpassed consensus forecasts as it wrung out cost savings. The company also maintained the full-year outlook it slashed three months ago.

But headwinds from a pressured US consumer, an influx of tariffs from the Trump administration, market-share loss to rival Walmart (WMT), and operational challenges were apparent.

Target's comparable sales fell 1.9% from a year ago, led by a 3.2% drop at its stores. Comparable digital sales increased 4.3%. Gross profit margins declined to 29% from 30% a year ago.

Read more here.

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)

Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:

Target earnings miss the mark as sales keep falling

Target will have a new CEO for the first time since 2014

Intel's Trump deal perks may rival the money

Buffett effect still holds as UnitedHealth soars through August

This summer's hottest trend on Wall Street: 'Private for longer'

US housing warning sparks worst James Hardie selloff since 1973

US treasury chief says status quo with China 'working pretty well'

Sales of foreign-branded phones in China down 31.3% in June: Data

China exports of key rare-earth EV magnets hit 6-month high

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.