Stocks Opened Lower amid Mixed Earnings

U.S. stocks opened lower on Wednesday as investors assessed a larger-than-expected jump in wholesale prices and mixed earnings reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately shed 56.32 points, or 0.34%, to 16,659.12. The S&P 500 was down3.51 points, or 0.18%, to 1,893.94. The Nasdaq Composite fell 8.08 points, or 0.20%, at 4,122.08.

U.S. wholesale costs posted the biggest increase in April since the fall of 2012 as they rose sharply for the second straight month. The producer price index jumped a seasonally adjusted 0.6% last month following a revised 0.5% increase in March, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

Deere & Co. said its fiscal second-quarter profit fell 9.5% as equipment sales slumped. For the period ended April 30, the company posted earnings of $980.7 million, or $2.65 a share, down from $1.08 billion, or $2.76 a share, a year earlier. Revenue decreased 8.9% to $9.95 billion.

Plug Power (PLUG) posted a loss in the first quarter. The company had an adjusted per-share loss of 6 cents on sales of $5.57 million.

The Federal Reserve warned it may need to take additional action to rein in banks’ funding of corporate takeovers after observing continued deterioration of lending standards this year.

A federal judge ruled that former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner must hand over documents to Standard and Poor’s relating to the ratings agency’s claim that the United States sued it in retaliation for downgrading government debt.

Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD) said it was looking to sell its 51 percent stake in Sears Canada Inc (SCC.TO) in a process that could result in all of the struggling Canadian department store operator being put up for sale.