U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 100 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.25% to 53,476.44 while the NASDAQ rose 0.10% to 26,317.02. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.37% to 7,719.97.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares jumped by 3.1% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology stocks fell by 0.3%.

Top Headline

Target Corp (NYSE:TGT) reported better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter on Wednesday.

The company posted quarterly earnings of $2.46 per share which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $2.33 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $26.539 billion which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $26.141 billion.

Target raised its FY2026 adjusted EPS guidance from $8.50 to $9.90-$10.90 and also increased sales forecast from $108.971 billion to $110.019 billion.

Equities Trading UP
           

  • Yunji Inc (NASDAQ:YJ) shares shot up 156% to $4.46. Yunji will report first half 2026 financial results on Aug. 20.
  • Shares of Tenon Medical Inc (NASDAQ:TNON) got a boost, surging 110% to $11.45 after the company received a notice of allowance for a U.S. Patent Titled “Systems, Apparatus and Methods for Stabilizing Sacroiliac Joints”
  • Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) shares were also up, gaining 100% to $125.70 after the company and Merck announced topline results from the Phase 3 INTerpath-001 trial met its primary and a key secondary endpoint.

Equities Trading DOWN

  • Profusa Inc (NASDAQ:PFSA) shares dropped 46% to $14.77 after jumping around 507% on Tuesday.
  • Shares of Wetour Robotics Ltd (NASDAQ:WETO) were down 30% to $23.18.
  • CID HoldCo Inc (NASDAQ:DAIC) was down, falling 23% to $0.49 after the company announced an additional Nasdaq listing deficiency and a loan default.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $85.45 while gold traded up 0.1% at $4,423.10.

Silver traded down 0.4% to $63.810 on Wednesday, while copper fell 1% to $6.4260.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1%, Germany’s DAX declined 0.2%, while France’s CAC 40 gained 0.3%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dipping 3.16%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gaining 0.09%, China’s Shanghai Composite dropping 2.40% and India’s BSE Sensex falling 0.42%.

Economics

The volume of mortgage applications fell by 0.4% in the second week of August.

Photo via Shutterstock