"There were some warning signs from Target, but if you look at personal income and retail sales, they have been strong all year," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities, in an interview. "That suggests the consumer has buying power."

The stock market was mixed to start the day as Wall Street digested the latest global manufacturing numbers. The Nasdaq Composite was down 0.2%. “Despite a weak batch of flash manufacturing PMI reports from Asia and Europe,

Target’s stock was down more than 20% in afternoon trading, compared with a 0.6% decline for the S&P 500 index, according to FactSet data, at last check. The S&P 500’s consumer-staples sector was slumping 0.4% on Wednesday afternoon.