Stocks Open Higher as Investors Assess Earnings

U.S. stocks stepped higher at the open on Wednesday, as  investors assessed company earnings and waited for new data on the housing market.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately gained 23.44 points, or 0.14%, to 16,203.10. The S&P 500 was up 1.73 points, or 0.09%, to 1,846.85. The Nasdaq Composite rose 13.51 points, or 0.32%, to 4,301.10.

Target Corp’s (TGT) net profit almost halved in the holiday quarter as the third-largest U.S. retailer dealt with the fallout of a massive
data breach and warned that costs related to the event could hurt future profits. Net earnings fell to $520 million, or 81 cents a share in
the three months that ended on Feb 1, from $961 million, or $1.47 a share, a year earlier. Sales fell 3.8 percent to $21.52 billion, missing
the already lowered estimate of $22.37 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Lowe’s Cos Inc reported strong sales growth in the fourth quarter, showing that the No. 2 U.S. home improvement retailer was closing in on
market leader Home Depot Inc. Its net sales rose 5.6 percent to $11.66 billion in the fourth-quarter ended January 31.

Tesla Motors Inc. shares hit a record high of $248 on Tuesday ahead of an expected announcement of a battery-production partnership in which
the company would carve out a business making advanced batteries for itself and others.

International Business Machines (IBM) Corp.’s employee count dropped for the first time in a decade as the world’s biggest computer-services
company reined in costs to help meet profit goals.

Bank of America Corp may have a new mortgage problem on its plate, saying on Tuesday that federal investigators are looking into whether the
bank violated requirements of a U.S.

U.S. regulators are investigating whether Credit Suisse Group AG improperly shifted money in its private banking unit to obscure a drop in
asset growth amid a U.S.