Consumer stocks were higher late Wednesday afternoon, with the State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP) increasing 1.1% and the State Street Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLY) adding 1.5%.
In corporate news, Honda (HMC), Nissan, and Mitsubishi Motors are in final talks to standardize electronic control units, or ECUs, for next-generation vehicles, Nikkei Asia reported. Honda shares added 0.8%.
Total online spending for all US retailers hit $8.3 billion on the first day of Amazon's (AMZN) four-day Prime Day event, Bloomberg reported, citing data from Adobe (ADBE), which previously estimated $7.9 billion. Amazon shares gained 0.8%.
Wendy's (WEN) shares jumped 24% after meme-stock traders rushed to buy the heavily shorted stock, multiple media outlets reported.
Hertz Global (HTZ) said Wednesday in a regulatory filing that "current unexpected softness" in the market for used cars has caused it to realize losses on the sale of vehicles in May, which will adversely impact net depreciation per unit per month in Q2. Hertz shares tumbled 38%.