Stocks sink by most since June 2020 as retail results disappoint across the board
U.S. stocks sank on Wednesday after a series of disappointing quarterly results from some major retailers weighed on the broader markets. Investors also further digested remarks from Federal Reserve officials reaffirming their aims of reining in inflation.
The S&P 500 slid by 4% in its worst day since June 2020, closing at 3,923.68. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 4.7% to settle at 11,418.15, while the Dow fell by more than 1,100 points, or 3.6%.
The moves lower came as some weaker-than-expected earnings results from major retailers underscored the toll that inflation has been having on corporate profits. Target (TGT) on Wednesday cut its full-year operating income margin outlook as input and transportation costs remain elevated, and estimated it could see an additional $1 billion in transportation costs this year due to rising fuel prices. And this came after Walmart (WMT), the largest U.S. retailer, on Tuesday reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings and slashed its profit outlook for the year, citing higher wages, fuel and food costs. Shares of both companies sank, dragging peers including Costco (COST) and Dollar General (DG) lower in sympathy. The S&P Retail ETF (XRT) dropped more than 8%, and the S&P 500's consumer staples and consumer discretionary sectors lagged.
“I think what investors realized was these seemingly safe haven stocks, the staples like Target, like Walmart, are not immune — that their costs are rising, they cannot pass their higher costs onto their consumers. And as Walmart said yesterday, their customers are coming in and buying groceries, but they’re not buying hard goods, they’re not buying other products where they have a slightly higher margin," Jack Ablin, Cresset Capital chief investment officer, told Yahoo Finance Live Wednesday afternoon. "So if you look at the consumer and recognize yes wages are up, but they’re not going up at the same rate as inflation, and the highest cost increases are food and energy, that’s funneling away spending that ordinarily would be spent at a more profitable side of Walmart and a Target.”
The disappointing results outweighed optimism from earlier this week, when investors took in a number of upbeat reports on the U.S. economy. Tuesday's at least short-lived rally came following a couple of solid reports that showed both consumer spending and manufacturing production were holding up strongly. U.S. retail sales grew at a 0.9% rate in April after a sharply upwardly revised 1.4% monthly rise in March, suggesting consumers were continuing to spend even as consumer prices have climbed at the fastest rate since the 1980s. The latest print on U.S. industrial production also exceeded estimates with a jump of 1.1% last month, or more than double the expected rise.
The still-strong economic backdrop has given the Federal Reserve more room to raise interest rates and otherwise tighten monetary policy to bring down inflation without fear of deeply disrupting growth in other areas like the labor market.
Fed Chair Powell acknowledged to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that while "there could be some pain involved in restoring price stability," he believed the Fed will be able to "sustain a strong labor market." Powell also said that there remained "broad support" for two more 50 basis point interest rate hikes at the Fed's next policy-setting meetings, reiterating his view from the Fed's last meeting earlier this month.
"I don't think he said anything that caught us off guard ... but let's not forget where we are," Ryan Detrick, LPL Financial Chief Market Strategist, told Yahoo Finance Live on Tuesday, noting that the S&P 500 has fallen for six consecutive weeks heading into this week. "It hasn't been down seven weeks in a row for 20 years, so we're awfully oversold here. Then you come in today and you've got industrial production pretty solid, you've got retail sales pretty solid. Things aren't perfect, but we just think so much of the negativity that is priced in ... it's just a little overboard for us, and we think this could very well be an opportunity for some of the longer-term investors here."
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