Stock market live Wednesday: Stocks slide in final hour, Another S&P record, Apple briefly tops $2T

• S&P 500 closed down 0.44% for its first negative day in three
• S&P 500 hit a new intraday all-time high of 3,399.54 but failed to close at a new record
• S&P 500 is up 4.46% year to date
• Eleven out of 11 sectors were negative Wednesday led by real estate down 2.01% 
• Nasdaq Composite closed down 0.57% for its first negative day in three
• The Nasdaq Composite hit a new intraday all-time high of 11,257.42 but failed to close at a new record  
• Nasdaq Composite is up 24.23% year to date 
• Dow closed down 0.31% for its third straight negative day for the first time since June 19
• Dow is down 2.96% year to date
• Russell 2000 small caps closed up 0.15% for their second positive day in three
• Small caps are down 5.78% year to date. — Gina Francolla

All three major indexes fell during the final hour of trading to finish Wednesday's session in negative territory. The Nasdaq Composite was the worst performer, falling 0.6%, while the S&P 500 and Dow fell 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively. — Jesse Pound

The major averages were off their session highs with an hour left in the session after the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its July meeting. The Dow was up 43 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 traded marginally higher while the Nasdaq Composite hugged the flatline as well. —Fred Imbert

Treasury yields turned higher and hit their highs of the day after the Federal Reserve's meeting summary showed the policymarkers have put the so-called yield curve control on the back burner.

"Yield caps and targets would likely provide only modest benefits in the current environment, as the Committee's forward guidance regarding the path of the fed funds rate already appeared highly credible and longer term interest rates were already low. Many of these participants also pointed to potential costs associated with yield caps and targets," the minutes showed.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose one basis point to 0.6817% following the comments, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was up 3 basis points at 1.4309%. Yields move inversely to prices.

"In light of these concerns, many participants judged that yield caps and targets were not warranted in the current environment but should remain an option that the Committee could reassess in the future if circumstances changed markedly," the meeting summary stated.

Yield curve control involves using bond purchases to target yields and keep them from rising and hindering the economic recovery. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell previously said the policymakers were in the early stage of evaluation this strategy.— Yun Li

The U.S. dollar strengthened and gold futures extended their losses for the day after the minutes from the Federal Reserve's July meeting showed little enthusiasm from central bankers to use yield curve controls. Aggressive action from the Fed during the pandemic has led some investors to express concern about inflation, which is seen as bullish for gold and damaging to the dollar. The dollar currency index hit session highs of 93.03 following the release, while gold futures for December dropped below $1950 an ounce. Gold futures have fallen roughly 3% so far on Wednesday. — Jesse Pound

Fed officials believe that Covid-19 will continue to "weigh heavily" on the economy, according to the Federal Open Market Committee minutes from July's meeting, which were released on Wednesday.

Officials at the meeting "agreed that the ongoing public health crisis would weigh heavily on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term and was posing considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term."

At the July 28-29 session, the Federal Reserve's policymaking arm voted to keep short-term interest rates near zero. - Jeff Cox

Apple's latest surge has put its stock price well-above the average target among Wall Street analysts, a position the stock has rarely been in over the last five years. The stock's 21% jump since its latest earnings report has even put it above the new targets set by bullish analysts less than a month ago. Other analysts have grown more cautious on the stock in recent weeks, saying that the valuation multiple has gone too far. — Jesse Pound

Target — Shares of Target rallied nearly 12% to hit an all-time high after the retailer's quarterly results blew past Wall Street's expectations. Target posted a 10.9% increase in comparable sales for its brick-and-mortar stores in the second quarter, while its digital sales nearly tripled from a year earlier.

Cree — Shares of the semiconductor company plunged nearly 9% after it gave a weak earnings outlook for the current quarter. Fiscal first quarter revenue outlook came in roughly in line with estimates.

BioMarin – Shares of the biotech company dropped more than 34% after the FDA rejected the company's gene therapy treatment for hemophilia.

Momenta Pharmaceuticals – Shares of Momenta Pharmaceuticals soared nearly 70% after Johnson & Johnson announced a deal to purchase the drug company for $6.5 billion in cash or $52.50 per share.

Check out more companies making headlines in midday trading. — Yun Li 

The S&P 500 notched a fresh record high and traded 0.1% higher in midday as Apple's valuation climbed to $2 trillion for the first time. The Dow, meanwhile, rose by 42 points, or 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.3%. —Fred Imbert

With Apple's stock rally cementing its place as the first U.S. company to reach a $2 trillion value, some investors are already starting to wonder what to watch for as the iPhone maker's market capitalization treks to $3 trillion.

Steve Weiss, an Apple shareholder and founder of Short Hills Capital, said he thinks the advent of 5G technology and Apple's forthcoming 5G phone will be key to its next trillion in market cap. — Thomas Franck

Investors will get a look into what Fed officials think about the economy, markets and the state of policy when the Federal Open Market Committee releases the minutes from its last meeting. Central bankers voted to keep short-term interest rates steady around zero at the July 28-29 meeting as they characterized economic growth as "well below" where things were before the Covid-19 pandemic. The market, though, will be looking deeper than the status of rates. Traders will also be perusing the minutes for clues about future policy, in particular surrounding expectations for enhanced "forward guidance," or the parameters the Fed will use for changing policy, as well as the possibility of using bond purchases to control government bond yields. The meeting summary comes out Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET. — Jeff Cox

Target — Shares of Target rallied nearly 12% to hit an all-time high after the retailer's quarterly results blew past Wall Street's expectations. Target posted a 10.9% increase in comparable sales for its brick-and-mortar stores in the second quarter, while its digital sales nearly tripled from a year earlier.

Cree — Shares of the semiconductor company plunged nearly 9% after it gave a weak earnings outlook for the current quarter. Fiscal first quarter revenue outlook came in roughly in line with estimates.

BioMarin – Shares of the biotech company dropped more than 34% after the FDA rejected the company's gene therapy treatment for hemophilia.

Momenta Pharmaceuticals – Shares of Momenta Pharmaceuticals soared nearly 70% after Johnson & Johnson announced a deal to purchase the drug company for $6.5 billion in cash or $52.50 per share.

Check out more companies making headlines in midday trading. — Yun Li 

On the back of a new all-time high for the S&P 500, a number of stocks hit record highs on Wednesday, including:

• Apple Inc. (AAPL) trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in Dec., 1980
• Best Buy (BBY) trading at all-time high levels since its IPO in 1985
• Texas Instruments (TXN) trading at all-time highs back to when it first began trading in 1953
• Nike (NKE) trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in 1980
• Target (TGT) trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in Oct., 1967
• Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in Jan., 2006. - Chris Hayes

Apple's stock gained more than 1% to hit a session high of $468.09, pushing the company's market cap above $2 trillion for the first time. After soaring nearly 60% this year, the tech giant became the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach the $2 trillion milestone. Apple first reached a $1 trillion market cap on Aug. 2, 2018. — Yun Li

Evercore ISI downgraded biotech company BioMartin on Wednesday morning to in line from outperform after the FDA rejected its gene therapy for hemophilia drug Roctavian. "The FDA rejection of BMRN's Roctavian isn't so much of a surprise based on facts as it is a surprise relative to the company's extreme level of confidence that the product would be approved," analyst Josh Schimmer said. Shares of the company were down over 31% in early trading.-Michael Bloom

In the first half of the year when U.S. businesses were roiled by the coronavirus pandemic, merger and acquisition volume was down 50% year-over-year, according to JMP Securities. However, announced M&A volume is actually tracking up year-over-year, or 6% quarter-to-date, the firm said. "A material recovery, but the business is uneven and still has some obstacles to navigate in the back half of the year," JMP analyst Devin Ryan told clients. "The conditions for activity have been improving in recent months and we think the overall tone is quite a bit better across the globe than it was just a couple months back," added Ryan. "If the market backdrop remains relatively stable, we believe that a continued recovery in M&A activity is a reasonable assumption, though markets will clearly have to navigate a number of events in the coming months, including what will likely be an intense U.S. election." —Maggie Fitzgerald 

Shares of major airlines climbed higher in morning trading on Wednesday, leading the broader market higher. American Airlines and United jumped more than 5% each, while Delta and Southwest both rose over 4%. The gains came after Southwest reported a "modest" leisure demand uptick this month as vacationers booked last-minute trips despite the pandemic. The carrier also turned down a $2.8 billion government loan, saying it can get financing elsewhere. — Yun Li

Citi raised its price target on shares of buy-rated Disney to $150 from $135 and said it expects "robust growth at Disney's Direct-to-Consumer segment" going forward. "While the firm continues to endure near-term operating headwinds as a result of the COVID pandemic, we believe investors are increasingly focused on the prospects for Disney's operations to gradually return to normal," analyst Jason Bazinet said. Shares were up 0.47% in early trading and are also up over 10% this month. - Michael Bloom 

Shares of BioMarin dropped more than 31% on Wednesday after the FDA rejected the company's gene therapy treatment for hemophilia. "We are surprised and disappointed that the FDA introduced new expectations for the first time in the Complete Response Letter," chairman and CEO Jean-Jacques Bienaimé said in a statement. "We are confident in valoctocogene roxaparvovec gene therapy and its potential to redefine the treatment paradigm for people with hemophilia A." - Pippa Stevens

U.S. markets were relatively unchanged at the start of trading on Wednesday as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite sought to build on Tuesday's record highs.

The S&P opened 0.15% higher, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced X points for a gain of 0.15%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was the underperformer, opening roughly 0.09% higher. - Pippa Stevens 

BMO Capital Markets' Brian Belski thinks the market will have a tough time building on its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic after the S&P 500 clawed its way back to a record high. "We see limited upside for US stocks overall in the coming months as we believe the host of uncertainties investors will be forced to contend with in the current market landscape will likely lead to elevated levels of volatility and a sideways market for the foreseeable future," said Belski, the firm's chief investment strategist. —Fred Imbert, Michael Bloom

• Stifel downgraded Darden to hold from buy.
• KeyBanc upgraded XPO Logistics to overweight from sector weight.
• Bank of America upgraded Home Depot to buy from neutral.
• Guggenheim initiated Wayfair as buy.
• Morgan Stanley downgraded J.M. Smucker to underweight from equal weight.
• Jefferies raised its price target on Salesforce to $235 from $220.

Pro Subscribers read more here.- Michael Bloom

Shares of Lowe's gained 1% in premarket trading after the home improvement retailer easily beat expectations on the top and bottom lines for its fiscal second quarter. Revenue rose 30% and net earnings jumped nearly 70%.  The blowout result follows a strong report from Home Depot on Tuesday. — Jesse Pound

President Donald Trump said Wednesday evening that he called off last weekend's scheduled trade talks with China. Top U.S. and Chinese trade officials — U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He — were supposed to hold a video call on Saturday to review the progress on the phase-one trade deal reached in January.

"I canceled talks with China," Trump said Tuesday in Yuma, Arizona. "I don't want to talk to China right now."

His cancellation further raised doubts about the future of the trade relationship between the two countries. Tensions had already escalated as of late with the Trump administration imposing sanctions on Chinese officials over Hong Kong and banning transactions with popular Chinese app TikTok. — Yun Li 

Johnson & Johnson announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to buy Momenta Pharmaceuticals in an all-cash deal worth $6.5 billion. The move gives Johnson & Johnson the rights to the experimental therapy nipocalimab. The price values Momenta at $52.50 per share, about 70% above where shares closed on Tuesday. Momenta's stock surged to near the offer price in premarket trading, while Johnson & Johnson shares rose slightly on light volume. — Jesse Pound

Mortgage application volume fell 3.3% from the previous week, while refinance demand dropped 5%, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The decline came as mortgage rates rose abruptly. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($510,400 or less) increased suddenly to 3.13% from 3.06%. — Yun Li, Diana Olick

Target said Wednesday that its profit jumped 80.3% during the second quarter as consumers flocked to the store amid the coronavirus pandemic. The big box retailer earned an adjusted $3.38 for the quarter, ahead of the $1.62 expected according to estimates from Refinitiv. Revenue came in at $23 billion versus the Street consensus estimate of $20.09 billion. The company also said that same-store sales jumped by 24.3%, far ahead of the 7.6% rise expected. - Melissa Repko, Pippa Stevens

U.S. stock futures rose slightly on Wednesday as Wall Street tried to build on the all-time high set in the previous session. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 36 points, 0.1%. S&P 500 futures gained 0.1%. Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.1%, however. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 broke above its record high set in February to complete its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic sell-off. —Fred Imbert