US markets have opened lower on Wednesday, continuing their weakness from Tuesday.
The benchmark S&P 500 fell 0.55%, while the Nasdaq composite was down 0.61% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.82%.
Health services and retail trade fell the most, with a 2% and 1% fall, respectively.
Consumer durables and non-energy minerals sectors were green on Wednesday.
Keysight Technologies was a major gainer in the S&P 500 with a 6% gain.
Fair Issac Corporation, Palo Alto Networks experienced a fall of more than 10% and a 6% decline, respectively.
Palo Alto Networks’ Q3 gross margin came below expectations, although the company beat earnings and revenue expectations.
Google Class A shares bucked the trend with a more than 1% rise as the market was buzzing about its latest AI offerings at the Google IO developer conference.
Google had unveiled a new monthly subscription, “Google AI Ultra,” for $249.99 per month.
The subscription provides users with full access to Gemini by providing higher usage limits, Flow, its new AI filmmaking tool, 30 terabytes of storage, and a YouTube Premium subscription.
Google also announced partnerships with Warby Parker and Kering for its smart glass market push.
Analysts gave bullish calls for Google and increased price targets for the stock.
Morgan Stanley’s target price gave a 13% upside while Bank of America gave a 22% upside.
Stocks like Meta, Netflix, and Tesla were also up marginally in green.
While Amazon was down 1%.
In contrast, the European market reversed earlier weakness after opening lower in the beginning.
Germany’s DAX was marginally higher by 0.07%. The UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 0.11% while France’s CAC 40 was still down by 0.40%.
Trump’s Golden Dome
US President Donald Trump said the US will build a “Golden Dome” missile defense system.
Trump said the system is expected to come into operation within 3 years.
The defence system will be able to intercept missiles launched from any part of the globe, said Trump.
He added that it would be able to stop missiles launched from space as well.
The president has announced a $25 billion package for the initial stage from next year’s defense spending package.
The project is expected to cost around $175 billion.
Tariff Casualties
Tariffs are starting to bring casualties in the US market.
Retail Corporation Target’s shares were down 6% after the company missed revenue expectations in Q1 and cut sales outlook for the full year.
The company’s executives have weak discretionary spending and uncertainties caused by US tariffs.
Target was not the only company affected by the tariffs.
Walmart was also trading down on Wednesday, extending its weakness to a third session.
Walmart, in its earnings call last week, had said it would increase prices to combat the tariffs as it said the levels are still too high even after the recent scale back.
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