Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on August 19, 2025.
NYSE
S&P 500 futures slipped early Wednesday as investors weighed a mixed batch of retail earnings and looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes release.
Futures tied to the benchmark shed 0.2%, along with Nasdaq-100 futures. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 75 points, or 0.2%.
Target shares dropped around 8% after the company reported another decline in sales. It also announced CEO Brian Cornell would leave his post in February. Lowe’s, meanwhile, popped more than 3% after the home improvement retailer’s earnings beat expectations.
Those figures come after a post-earnings jump in Home Depot helped the Dow eke out a small gain and set an intraday record, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell due to a decline in tech names.
Investors are also awaiting July meeting minutes from the Fed due at 2 p.m. ET. At the time, policymakers once more held steady on interest rates, but Fed Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman dissented, marking the first time two voting Fed officials have done so since 1993.
That comes ahead of remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Friday, which investors will monitor for insights into the path of interest rates. Fed funds futures are pricing in a nearly 85% likelihood of the central bank cutting interest rates at its next policy gathering in September, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
“We expect this year’s Jackson Hole meeting to offer an opportunity for Powell to again nod towards monetary easing,” said Andrzej Skiba, head of the BlueBay U.S. Fixed Income team at RBC Global Asset Management. “While there are some hot spots in this month’s inflation reading, it’s probably not enough to deter the doves on the committee.”
Before the minutes on Wednesday, traders will monitor earnings reports from Lowe’s, Target and TJX Cos. due before the bell.