Stocks are little changed as Wall Street awaits big Nvidia earnings: Live updates

Garmin shares on Wednesday were tracking for their worst daily move since September 2022 after Bank of America warned the electronics maker was “priced to perfection.”

The stock tumbled more than 4% in morning trading. If that holds through session close, it will mark the biggest one-day loss for shares since Sept. 13, 2022, when the stock tumbled about 4.5%.

Despite Wednesday’s slide, the stock is still up more than 28% on the year.

Bank of America analyst Ronald Epstein downgraded the stock to underperform from neutral and chopped $15 off his price target to $150. That target suggests shares can slip around 12% from Tuesday’s close.

“In 1Q, Garmin has stood apart from peers demonstrating the strength of their brand, resiliency of their customers, and ignited growth across segment,” Epstein said. “Now, however, we worry the momentum is decelerating … which implies the current valuation is unsustainable.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can click here to read more about the call and the other big ones out of Wall Street this morning.

— Alex Harring

Coinciding with its first earnings miss in six quarters, Target gave conservative second quarter guidance. The big box retailer projects same-store sales of up 0%-2% vs. the Street’s expectation for 1.5% growth. Meanwhile, earnings guidance of $1.95-$2.35 has a midpoint of $2.15, which is below the $2.19 expected by analysts.

However, the full-year forecast is reaffirmed – implying better performance in the back half of the year. While they feel the U.S. consumer remains largely “resilient” overall, Target executives told analysts on the call that “Currently one in three Americans has maxed out or is nearing the limit on at least one of their credit cards.  For these reasons and more, we remain cautious in our near-term growth outlook.  Notably we expect discretionary trends will continue to remain pressured in the short-term but to normalize over time.” 

TJX gives weak second quarter guidance – with earnings per share seen 88-90 cents, solidly below the 94 cent estimate. Same-store sales are projected to grow 2%-3%, a bit conservative compared to Wall Street’s expectation of up 3%. The company raises its full year earnings guidance – but that’s mostly because of the off-price retailer’s first quarter beat. But take into account the weak second quarter as well, the full year outlook implies there’s greater hope for the second half.

And last night, Urban Outfitters executives told analysts to expect more markdowns this quarter – particularly at its more troubled namesake stores – to clear out inventory before the back-to-school season. Despite that, they remained optimistic that there will be “improved regular price sales and product margins in the back half of the current year.”

— Robert Hum

Existing U.S. home sales for April fell 0.9% to 4.14 million, a sign the housing market may be cooling. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected an increase of 1.4% to 4.25 million from 4.19 million in March.

— Fred Imbert

Nvidia shares ticked down 1.1% Wednesday morning, ahead of the company’s earnings report after the bell.

Week to date, the chipmaker stock is up 2.2%. Shares have rallied 90.9% in 2024.

U.S. stocks began Wednesday’s trading session little changed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 59 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 inched lower 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite ticked up 0.1%.

— Hakyung Kim

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell.

• Target — Target’s shares tumbled more than 7% after first-quarter earnings missed estimates, driven by a year-over-year sales decline of about 3% as consumers bought fewer discretionary items.
• Analog Devices — The semiconductor manufacturing company jumped 6.2% after exceeding quarterly estimates. Analog Devices posted adjusted earnings of $1.40 per share in its fiscal second quarter on revenue of $2.16 billion, while analysts polled by FactSet forecast earnings of $1.26 per share, excluding one-time items, on revenue of $2.11 billion.
• Shopify — The retail software stock rose 2.6% following a Goldman Sachs upgrade to buy from neutral. The investment bank said the industry leader’s shares are at an attractive entry point following a rough year to date. 

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh

Wheat futures hit their highest level since July 2023, part of a broad rise this year in multiple agricultural commodities.

Chicago wheat futures hit a high of 716.75 cents, as concerns mounted over harvests in Russia and Vietnam. Prices eased a bit after peaking and were last up 0.8% to 703 cents. On a weekly basis, wheat is up about 9%.

Agricultural commodity prices in general have been trending higher, with the Invesco DB Agriculture ETF up 1.3% over the past five trading days and nearly 16% higher year to date.

—Jeff Cox

Nvidia‘s earnings reports represents a key test that could help the tech and AI rally take another leg higher, Solita Marcelli, UBS Global Wealth Management chief investment officer for the Americas, said in a note to clients. The rest of the sector has already held up its end of the bargain in earnings season.

“US tech earnings so far have been among the strongest in the first-quarter reporting season, with revisions in the sector outpacing the rest of the market. However, earnings results also suggest a broadening market: Since March, tech companies excluding Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Apple have revised 2024 profit estimates up by 7%. This wider growth makes global tech valuations of a 24x price-to-earnings ratio for 2025 appear reasonable,” Marcelli said.

Nvidia is scheduled to report its quarterly results after Wednesday’s market close.

— Jesse Pound

Target shares were down nearly 7% in the premarket after the retailer weaker-than-expected earnings and a sales decline.

The company earned $2.03 per share, while analysts polled by LSEG expected a profit of $2.06 per share. Revenue was about in line with expectations at $24.53 billion. The results were driven by consumers purchasing fewer groceries and home goods at the retailer.

European markets opened lower on Wednesday, with all major bourses starting the day in the red, following the release of fresh U.K. inflation data.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was last down 0.34% at 8:10 a.m. London time..

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was meanwhile 0.52% lower, with Germany’s DAX down 0.4% and France’s CAC 40 shedding 0.43%.

Autos dropped 2.3%, and oil and gas stocks lost 0.74%.

— Sophie Kiderlin

Seven sectors out of the 11 total ended Tuesday’s trading session with a gain.

Utilities led the moves higher, cinching a 0.97% gain for the day, followed by consumer staples and financials. On the other hand, energy was the biggest laggard, down 0.51%.

All sectors are less than 10% off their 52-week highs, while the tech sector saw a fresh record close in Tuesday’s session.

— Lisa Kailai Han, Christopher Hayes

These are the stocks moving the most in extended hours trading:

• Urban Outfitters — The clothing retailer added nearly 8% after beating estimates on its first-quarter results.
• Viasat — Shares of the communications company slid nearly 13% after Viasat posted a loss of 80 cents per share in the fiscal fourth quarter.
• Toll Brothers – Shares of the homebuilder advanced more than 1%. Toll Brothers posted fiscal second-quarter earnings of $4.55 per share on revenue of $2.65 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG called for earnings of $4.14 per share and $2.53 billion in revenue.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Stock futures for all three major indexes traded near flat Tuesday night just after 6 p.m. ET.

— Lisa Kailai Han