Stock Market Today: Dow Slips From Highs, Target and Visa Shares

Yellen said that the government could fail to meet its obligations by Dec. 15 if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling. Part of the concern is a transfer the government will have to make soon related to the $1 trillion infrastructure bill President Biden signed this week.  

That’s certainly a concern for markets, but it’s likely to subside as the government is expected to resolve the issue soon. “The market knows that Washington, D.C. waits until the last minute,” said Dave Wagner, portfolio manager and analyst at Aptus Capital Advisors. “There’s volatility surrounding that entire event.” 

Credit markets are also sending a negative signal about corporate profits. The

iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond
Exchange-Traded Fund (HYG) has seen its share price fall 0.9% since Nov. 5, when it hit a more than one-month high. That means investors are moving out of risky corporate bonds, which indicates less confidence in companies’ ability to repay debts. Plus, credit spreads—the extra yield investors demand for buying risky credit over safe government bonds—have widened; a high yield bond index from Bank of America now shows a spread of 3.1 percentage points, up from 3.08 earlier this month, according to the St. Louis Fed.

“These are worrisome trends,” wrote NatAlliance Securities’ Andrew Brenner.

Elsewhere, U.K. inflation was higher than expected. Prices rose 4.2% year-over-year, against expectations of 3.9% and higher than the previous reading of 3.1%. That could make the Bank of England, which had recently said it will hold off on raising interest rates, more compelled to hike.  

Overseas, Tokyo’s

Nikkei 225
declined 0.4%. The

FTSE 100
fell 0.5% in London, underperforming other European indexes.

Here are seven stocks on the move Wednesday:

Visa

(ticker: V) stock dropped 5.5%…