Stock Market Today: Stocks Drop After Target Earnings, Fed Minutes Stocks took a sharp turn lower in early trading Wednesday, as a major earnings miss from one of the nation''s biggest retailers shocked investors. Ahead of the opening bell, Target ( TGT ) said its second-quarter earnings plunged 90% year-over-year to 39 cents per share – missing analysts'' consensus estimate by a mile – as the company aggressively marked down excess inventory. But, even though CEO Brian Cornell said on the company''s earnings call that "the vast majority of the financial impact of these inventory actions is now behind us," TGT stock fell 2.6% today. SEE MORE Warren Buffett Stocks Ranked: The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Wall Street also got the latest reading on consumer spending this morning, with data from the Commerce Department showing retail sales were flat in July. Excluding gas and auto sales, the metric was up 0.7% month-over-month. But the main event of the day was the mid-afternoon release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve''s July meeting, at which the central bank issued its second straight 75 basis-point rate hike. (A basis point is one-one hundredth of a percentage point.) Sign up for Kiplinger''s FREE Investing Weekly e-letter for stock, ETF and mutual fund recommendations, and other investing advice. "The minutes of the Fed''s July policy meeting affirmed that rates haven''t stopped rising but that the peak could come sooner than previously thought," says Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. "Citing few signs of lessening in underlying inflation pressures, and noting that strength in the labor market casts doubt on the underlying weakness in the economy (or at least GDP), the minutes confirmed that the only question for September is whether the Fed will scale back to 50 basis points from consecutive 75-basis-point hikes." SEE MORE 10 Best Value REITs for Income Investors The major market indexes pared a portion of their earlier losses after the release of the minutes, but still ended the day lower.