All three major US stock indexes were up in late-morning trading Wednesday, after the Treasury Department said it was raising the cap on its buyback operations for longer-dated nominal coupon securities to at least $4 billion per operation from $2 billion, effective Sept. 9.
In company news, Moderna (MRNA) and Merck (MRK) said Wednesday that a late-stage trial of intismeran autogene in combination with Keytruda met its primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival in patients with completely resected stage IIB-IV melanoma. The vaccine also met a key secondary endpoint of distant metastasis-free survival in patients, the companies said. Moderna shares were up 122.9% around midday, while Merck shares were up 11.1%.
Marvell Technology (MRVL) issued a warrant to Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google to buy up to a total of 59.0 million shares of its common stock at $206.58 per share as part of an expanded partnership agreement the two companies reached on July 29, Marvell said Wednesday in a regulatory filing. Marvell shares were up 8.2%, while Alphabet's Class C and Class A shares were up 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively.
Target (TGT) reported fiscal Q2 adjusted earnings Wednesday of $4.11 per diluted share, up from $2.05 a year earlier and above the FactSet consensus analyst estimate of $2.34. Fiscal Q2 net sales were $26.54 billion, up from $25.21 billion a year ago and above the FactSet consensus of $26.13 billion. For fiscal 2026, the company lifted its adjusted EPS guidance to between $9.90 and $10.90 from $7.50 to $8.50, above the FactSet consensus of $8.52. The company said it expects full-year net sales growth around 5%, up a percentage point from its previous guidance. Target shares were up 5.7%.
Nebius Group (NBIS) said Wednesday it plans to offer $4.50 billion of convertible senior notes in a private offering to qualified institutional buyers. The notes will be offered in two series: $2.75 billion aggregate original principal amount of convertible notes due 2030 and $1.75 billion aggregate original principal amount of convertible notes due 2034. Nebius shares were down 9.3%.
Price: 141.15, Change: +78.19, Percent Change: +124.18