US stocks were hammered on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones closing down 1,164 points, or 3.57%. CNBC reports that marks the fifth Dow drop of 800+ points this year and is the biggest drop since June 2020. The S&P 500 was down 4%, the biggest decrease since June 2020, with CNBC noting only only 13 members of the S&P 500 ended up for the day. The Nasdaq Composite's 4.7% decline is its biggest since May 5.
The sell-off came as Walmart and Target issued quarterly reports that did little to qualm investor worries about inflation. After Walmart on Tuesday attributed its lower-than-expected earnings to a rise in fuel and labor costs, Target did the same on Wednesday. Target's shares fell 26% on the news and closed down 25%; Walmart's dropped 11% on Tuesday and ended down an additional 7% Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal reports Target could be looking at "its worst one-day performance since Black Monday in 1987." Dollar Tree and Dollar General were also looking at their worst day in years, reports the AP; they closed down 14.4% and 11.1%, respectively. "Any company that relies on households and discretionary purchases will likely suffer this quarter because a lot of discretionary income has been funneled to food and energy prices," Cresset Capital partner Jack Ablin tells CNBC. (More Dow Jones stories.)
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