By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets opened lower on Wednesday, retracing Tuesday's modest gains after another mixed batch of results from the retail sector, in which fears of rising cost pressures overshadowed overall decent operating figures for the quarter just ended.
The market was also held back by a second straight decline in monthly housing starts, defying expectations for a rebound in October. Building permits, however, rebounded more sharply than expected.
By 9:45 AM ET (1445 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 42 points, or 0.1% at 36,100 points. The S&P 500 was down 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite was down less than 0.1%.
Early attention was focused on retailers, after Walmart (NYSE:WMT) admitted on Tuesday that rising costs were starting to eat into its profits, and the same message was sent by its rival Target , which said gross margins were compressed in the last three months. Target (NYSE:TGT) stock fell 5.2%.
There were more upbeat updates, however, from Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW), which was supported by the same factors as Home Depot (NYSE:HD) had been on Tuesday - above all by buoyant demand from professionals for tools and building materials to service the boom in home improvement. TJX (NYSE:TJX) stock also rose 8.2% after the discount fashion retailer reported a 14% rise in same-store sales in the quarter and reassured that its inventory was in good shape to meet peak holiday season demand.
The bigger news in retail was, however, of a more long-term nature. Visa (NYSE:V) stock fell 4.8% after Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced it will no longer accept Visa cards issued in the U.K., in response to the latter's fee increase that kicked in at the start of October. While the U.K. accounts for a relatively small part of Visa's global business, the news sent a signal that the market power of established card providers is waning, as alternative payment solutions become broaden their presence. Mastercard (NYSE:MA) stock fell 4.4% in sympathy.
Elsewhere, the froth came off Rivian (NASDAQ:RIVN) stock after it more than doubled in its first week of trading to become the world's third-most valuable automotive group - without having ever sold a vehicle. The electric truck maker fell 15% in early dealings, while Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock put the recent block sales by CEO Elon Musk behind it, rising 3.1%.
Money continued to flood out of Sea ADRs, after disappointing earnings and guidance from the southeast Asia-focused Internet platform on Tuesday. Sea (NYSE:SE) ADRs fell 10.1%