Consumer stocks were higher Wednesday afternoon, with the State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP) increasing 0.7% and the State Street Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLY) adding 1.5%.
In corporate news, 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 2.1%.
Wendy's (WEN) shares jumped 29% after meme-stock traders rushed to buy the heavily shorted stock, multiple media outlets reported.
FedEx (FDX) shares fell 1.7% after the company provided a calendar-year earnings outlook for 2026, even though the parcel delivery giant recorded an unexpected increase in its fiscal Q4 bottom line.