Consumer stocks were higher Wednesday afternoon, with the State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP) increasing 0.6% and the State Street Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLY) rising 1.4%.

In corporate news, the US Federal Communications Commission is expected to repeal a nationwide TV audience cap in what would be a win for Nexstar Media's (NXST) acquisition of rival Tegna, Bloomberg reported. A Nexstar-Tegna combination would reach roughly 80% of US households, significantly above the historic threshold of 39%, the report said. Nexstar shares jumped 4.2%.

Ford (F) Executive Chairman Bill Ford said Tuesday that the US automotive industry has to prepare for competition from China's carmakers when they eventually enter the market. "It's astonishing how quickly the Chinese auto companies have just taken Europe by storm. Because they're being subsidized by the Chinese government, and you know the Chinese government decided that their domestic economy was in tough straits, so they were going to export the heck out of things, and they have," Ford said at an event sponsored by Axios. Ford shares were up 2.2%.

Toyota Motor (TM) could lose its title as the world's largest automaker by sales to BYD without the Chinese competitor entering the US market, The Financial Times reported, citing BYD executive Stella Li and Founder Wang Chuanfu. The electric-vehicle manufacturer plans to surpass Toyota within five years through organic expansion and rapid advances in charging technology, the news outlet reported. Toyota shares were fractionally higher.