NEW YORK — U.S. stocks traded mixed on Wednesday, while oil prices rose another 3% as fighting continues in the war with Iran.
After swinging between modest declines and gains at the start of trading, the S&P 500 was largely unchanged, hitting a three-week high. As of 10:15 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 175 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.4%.
Most stocks in the S&P 500 rose as more companies reported strong spring profits. Expectations are generally high, and companies will need to match them after their stock prices have already come close to records.
Philip Morris International rose 3.2% after the Marlboro cigarette retailer reported better-than-expected profits and revenue for its latest quarter. Shipments of anti-smoking products increased by 7.5%.
AT&T rose 3.6% after reporting profit that beat analysts’ expectations. CEO John Stankey also said the company is accelerating plans to send about $10 billion to shareholders this year through share buybacks.
Supermicrocomputers soared 21.4% after the AI server seller said it expects profit margins for the latest quarter to be higher than previously expected. However, it also said sales would likely remain at the lower end of its expected range of $11 billion to $12.5 billion.
That helped offset a 7.3% decline in GE Vernova, which reported its latest quarterly profit was lower than analysts expected.
Alphabet rose 0.3% ahead of its earnings report, which is expected to be released after the day’s close. Expectations are high not only because Google’s parent company is one of Wall Street’s biggest stocks. It is also one of the largest spenders on artificial intelligence technology.
Investors are looking for signs that all the billions of dollars being poured into processors, computer memory, and other components of the AI boom are producing productivity and returns that justify the investment. If not, the stocks of chip companies and other AI winners will look very expensive following the surge.
Those concerns have kept AI stocks at the center of Wall Street’s price action for weeks.
Micron Technology swung between a 3.6% decline and a 0.8% rise Wednesday morning. The stock rose 14.4% in the first two days of this week, after almost recouping the 13.3% drop from the previous week. Year-to-date, it’s still up about 240%.
Stock markets are also feeling pressure across the board as oil prices continue to rise, raising costs and squeezing profits for most companies.
The price of international standard Brent crude oil rose 3.1% to $93.83 per barrel. That’s up from less than $72 earlier this month and about the same level as before the war with Iran. Early Wednesday morning, the price at one point exceeded $95 per barrel, reaching a six-week high.
Rising oil prices threaten to reaccelerate inflation as prices rise more slowly than economists expected. As a result, the Federal Reserve and other central banks may be forced to raise interest rates, slowing the economy and causing the prices of stocks and other investments to fall.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury rose to 4.65% from 4.63% late Tuesday, up from just 3.97% before the war with Iran began. This has already helped push long-term U.S. mortgage rates to their highest levels in nearly a year.
Oil prices are rising as fighting across the Middle East prevents oil tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz to leave the Persian Gulf and deliver to customers. Typically, one-fifth of the oil and natural gas traded during peacetime passes through this narrow strait.
Automobile club AAA announced Wednesday that the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the United States rose again overnight to $4.06. That’s still below May’s high of about $4.56 a gallon, but it was below $3 a gallon before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February.
In overseas stock markets, indexes also rose in Europe following mixed trading in Asia.
London’s FTSE 100 index rose 1.6%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1% in two of the world’s biggest price moves.
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Stan Cho, Associated Press
AP Business writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
