US stocks drift lower as mixed profit reports from retailers and higher Treasury yields weigh

By STAN CHOE Associated Press Business Writer NEW YORK AP U S stocks are slipping on Wednesday after particular of the country s biggest retailers gave mixed forecasts for where they see their profits heading under the uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump s pact war The S P was down in early trading and on track for a second straight drop after current a six-day winning streak The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down points or as of a m Eastern time and the Nasdaq composite was lower Stocks were also feeling pressure from rising Treasury yields in the bond industry Such rises in yields can push down prices of all kinds of investments and yields have been climbing in part because of concerns that big tax cuts under consideration in Washington could pile trillions of more dollars onto the U S regime s debt Related Articles In the present day in History May Clara Barton founds American Red Cross George Wendt who played a beloved barfly on Cheers and detected another home onstage dies at In the modern day in History May United States detonates first hydrogen bomb Supreme Court allows Trump to strip legal protections from Venezuelans who hazard deportation Stocks bonds and the dollar drift after the latest downgrade to the US governing body s credit rating Target slumped after the retailer informed weaker profit and revenue than analysts expected for the start of the year The company revealed it felt particular pain from boycotts by customers It had scaled back a great number of diversity equity and inclusion initiatives early this year following criticism by the White House and conservative activists which drew its own backlash Perhaps more worryingly for Wall Street Target also cut its forecast for profit over the full year Lowe s meanwhile was swinging between modest gains and losses after reporting a profit for the latest quarter that edged past analysts expectations The home-improvement retailer also stated it s sticking with its forecasts for sales and profit over the full year even with near-term uncertainty and housing domain headwinds according to CEO Marvin Ellison Its stock was largest part in recent times down A growing number of companies have in recent weeks disclosed tariffs and uncertainty about the commercial sector are making it tough to guess what the upcoming year will bring Others including Walmart have commented they ll have to raise prices to offset the Trump s tariffs U S stocks have not long ago recovered majority of of their steep losses from earlier in the year as Trump has delayed or rolled back plenty of of his stiff tariffs Investors are hopeful that Trump will lower his tariffs more permanently after reaching business deals with other countries In the bond field the yield on the -year Treasury rose to from late Tuesday and from just early last month That s a important move in the bond field Such yields in effect show how much in interest governments are having to pay investors in order to borrow money and they ve been on the rise for developed economies around the world That s partly because governments are continuing to borrow more cash to pay their bills while central banks like the Federal Reserve have cut back on their own investments in authorities bonds Moody s Ratings became the last of the three major ratings agencies late last week to downgrade the U S leadership s credit rating on concerns that it may be heading toward an unsustainable amount of debt We do not think that the downgrade matters by itself Bank of America strategists wrote in a BofA Global Research overview but it has served as a wake up call for those investors who had been ignoring the ongoing fiscal discussion In stock markets abroad indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements across Europe and Asia London s FTSE added after a analysis disclosed inflation in the United Kingdom spiked to its highest level for more than a year in April Tokyo s Nikkei fell after a description noted Japan s exports have slowed due to tariffs AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed