Stocks moved slightly higher Wednesday as investors digested a big batch of earnings reports.
Though the gains for the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were small, shares of some retailers were moving significantly.
Barnes & Noble shares jumped after the troubled bookstore chain swung to a quarterly profit thanks to cost-cutting measures. The company also announced plans to introduce a new color Nook in early fiscal 2015.
Shares for Abercrombie & Fitch rose after the teen clothing retailer announced a decline in revenue and profit that still managed to beat expectations.
Target shares were also higher even after the company blamed a data breach for a quarterly drop in revenue and profit.
Anheuser-Busch InBev shares gained ground after the brewer, which makes Budweiser and Stella Artois, reported better-than-expected fourth quarter results and outlined plans to boost sales during the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
On the downside, Credit Suisse shares slipped after a Senate report released Tuesday outlined how the Swiss bank helped clients hide billions from the IRS. The bank’s executives will appear before the Senate Wednesday.
Shares of First Solar fell 10% after reporting earnings that missed expectations.
Sturm Ruger shares tumbled even after the gun company delivered strong gains in sales and profit due to the launch of new products.
After the close, Baidu and J.C. Penney will report results.
In economic news, data on January sales of new homes came in stronger than expected, easing concerns of a slowdown int he housing market. Sales jumped almost 10% in January to the highest level since July 2008.
European markets were broadly lower in afternoon trading. The FTSE 100 in London was declining by roughly 0.4%.
Asian markets ended with mixed results — the main indexes in Australia and Japan moved slightly lower while other markets posted gains.
The yuan has been dropping in recent days, shaking confidence in the typically robust Chinese currency.
The price of Bitcoin continued to slide following the shutdown Monday of Mt. Gox, which used to be the dominant exchange for the digital currency.
