Macy's, Inc. (NYSE: M) surprised investors on Wednesday, after the department store missed expectations and reported second quarter earnings of $281 million, or 72 cents a share, compared with earnings of $279 million, or 67 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Wall Street expected Macy's to report EPS of 79 cents on revenue of $6.28 billion, according to analysts polled by Reuters.

Shares of Macy's, Inc. dropped 4.74 percent to $46.20 in morning trade.

Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) issued a record fiscal third quarter results showing income rose to $996.5 million, or $2.56 a share, from $788.0 million, or $1.98 a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue jumped 12 percent to $10.01 billion, from $8.93 billion in the year-ago period.

Shares of Deere & Company fell 2.71 percent to $81.64.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn's Apple support sent the tech giant's stock price soaring near a seven-month high on Tuesday, after he said he would purchase a large amount of Apple shares because he believes the company's stock is undervalued. Icahn is known for taking big stakes in companies such as Yahoo, Motorola and Netflix.

Shares of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) rose 1.63 percent to $497.50 in early trade on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 53.45 points, or 0.35 percent, at 15,397.56. The S&P 500 Index was down 3.59 points, or 0.21 percent, at 1,690.61. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 5.87 points, or 0.16 percent, at 3,677.88.