Markets opened down Wednesday morning and aside from a late morning push into positive territory, stocks have languished below the flat line since. The Nasdaq Composite did manage a scant gain of 0.02% at the closing bell, while the DJIA and the S&P 500 both closed down more than 0.1%.

Among heavily traded DJIA stocks, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) traded more than 9 million shares and the stock fell more than 1% on the day. A weak quarterly report from another store along with that store’s dismal forecast for profits in the fourth quarter made it hard even for the world’s largest retailer to post a share price gain today. Shares closed at $80.22, down 1.22%, in a 52-week range of $67.37 to $81.37. That high was also set today.

Another DJIA stock leading the decline today is McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD). Today was the first of two days of protests and demonstrations against McDonald’s urging the company to raise wages to a minimum of $15 an hour. McDonald’s is not being singled out; protests are also promised against Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC, and other fast food outlets in about 100 cities. McDonald’s stock is down 0.70% at $95.71 in a 52-week range of $86.73 to $103.70.

A middling earnings report from specialty retailer Express Inc. (NYSE: EXPR) boosted volume in the stock to more than 20 million shares, from the stock’s average of around 1 million. The CEO’s comments and a weak outlook for the fourth quarter simply crushed the stock. Shares closed down 23% at $19.00 in a 52-week range of $13.70 to $25.05.

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP), which was recently kicked off the S&P 500 index, saw its shares lose about XX% today as investors came to the senses, noting that yesterday’s announcement of a 10.1% same-store sales increase came on top of a 25% sales decline in November of 2012. On top of that the heavily promotional quality of the sales should call into question the absolute effectiveness of the company’s turnaround plan. Penney’s stock closed at $9.67 on Wednesday, down 4.35% in a 52-week range of $6.24 to $23.10.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.