Small caps and the IBD 50 fell nearly 1%, while the rest of the stock market made shallow but broad declines at midday Wednesday.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite edged 0.1% lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%. But small caps struggled, with the Russell 2000 off 0.8% at midday.
The Innovator IBD 50 ETF saw its decline grow to almost 1%, although there were no major moves in the index.
Volume was tracking higher on the Nasdaq and the NYSE, compared with the same time on Monday. U.S. financial markets were closed Tuesday for the holiday and trading ended early Monday.
Declining stocks topped advancers by a 12-to-7 ratio on the Nasdaq and by 8-5 on the NYSE.
At 2 p.m. ET, the Federal Reserve will release minutes of its June meeting. Although policymakers left interest rates unchanged at that meeting, they still favored more hikes for later in the year. The minutes should provide some detail on the thinking of the Fed.
May factory orders rose 0.9%, the fifth increase in the past six months. It was also above the 0.3% increase economists expected, according to Econoday. It was the latest in a series of mixed reports for the manufacturing sector.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose 5 basis points to 3.91%, rising above resistance around 3.85%. The benchmark yield is now at the highest point since March 9.
Meta, UPS, Rivian Among Stock Market Movers
Meta Platforms climbed more than 3% to its highest price since February 2022. The social media company is expected to announce a new app Thursday, called Threads, that will compete with Twitter.
United Parcel Service trimmed its loss to 1.4% at midday. The stock gapped down today on news that labor talks are going rough. The Teamsters union earlier today said negotiations had collapsed as UPS walked away from the bargaining table. But UPS said it is the Teamsters who stopped negotiating.
UPS stock is forming a cup base with a 197.80 buy point. Last week, it regained the 200-day moving average.
Rivian Automotive rose 2% in heavy volume, but met resistance at the downward-trending 200-day moving average. D.A. Davidson upgraded the EV stock to neutral from underperform and raised the price target to 18 from 11.
Netflix reversed slight lower after hitting a 52-week high. Goldman Sachs upgraded the video streaming service to neutral from sell and raised the price target to 400 from 230. Netflix is reporting second-quarter results in two weeks.
American Equity and Brookfield Reinsurance confirmed that Brookfield agreed to acquire the rest of American Equity it doesn't already own, in a cash and stock deal valued at about $4.3 billion. American Equity surged 17% on June 27, when Brookfield first made its offer public. Wednesday morning, American Equity was up nearly 2% and Brookfield fell 1.6%.
Coinbase fell 3.5% at midday after Piper Sandler downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight and reduced the price target to 60 from 65. The stock is still forming a cup base with an 85.38 buy point.
China Stock Market Falls On Slowing Activity
The Shanghai Composite fell 0.7% and the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index slid 1.6% Wednesday.
New data on Chinese economic activity showed continued weakness. China's nonmanufacturing PMI, which covers service and construction activity, fell in June to 53.2 from 54.5 in May. And the private Caixin services purchasing managers index dropped to 53.9 in June from 57.1 in May.
IShares MSCI China ETF fell 1% on Wall Street, and iShares China Large Cap ETF dropped 1.3%.
In Europe, the London FTSE 100 fell 1%, the Paris CAC 40 lost 0.8% and the German DAX closed 0.6% lower.
