Markets Mixed Amid Tech Slump and Oil Volatility

Dow hits a new record while the Nasdaq retreats as investors weigh strong corporate earnings against ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

The S&P 500 fell 12.97 points (0.2%) to close at 7,723.55. The Dow Jones industrial Average rose 263.24 points (0.5%) to 54,349.12, reaching another record. The Nasdaq fell 221.55 points (0.8%) to 26,363.44. The index was weighed down by big technology companies losing ground including a 4% drop for Google?s parent company, Alphabet and a 1.1% drop for Microsoft.

The price of Brent crude fell 0.1% to $79.45 a barrel. Oil prices have been swinging for months and were as high as $102 per barrel at one point during the conflict, jolting already stubbornly high inflation. Higher oil prices pushed gasoline prices higher and increased shipping costs for a wide range of products. Uncertainty about the direction of the U.S. war with Iran continues hanging over the market. President Donald Trump said a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could come as early as Wednesday but there have been many stops and starts during the five-month old conflict that has stifled the global supply of oil and rattled energy markets.

The market has been generally rising as companies head into the closing stretch of their latest round of earnings reports with sharp overall gains. Three-quarters of the companies within the S&P 500 have reported results so far and Wall Street expects profit growth of 50% when they are all finished.

The Walt Disney Co. rose 3.6% after easily beating Wall Street?s profit forecasts helped by a $1 billion box office haul from ?Toy Story 5? and theme park revenue. Booking Holdings jumped 6.6% after reporting that strong travel demand drove profit and revenue growth during its most recent quarter. Elon Musk?s SpaceX fell 13.6% following the release late Tuesday of its first quarterly report as a public company which showed that it sharply boosted spending on artificial intelligence. The company did help give semiconductor giant Nvidia a 3.4% boost after announcing it would exclusively use that company?s chips for its artificial intelligence technology while that announcement weighed on Advanced Micro Devices which fell 7%. Musk had previously said that SpaceX and his electric vehicle company, Tesla, would use chips from both Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia.

Strong corporate profits and expectations for more growth ahead have been steering stocks higher. Wall Street has also been worried about stock prices becoming unjustifiably high, especially within the technology sector and for companies focused on artificial intelligence. Profit growth, especially for some of the big chipmakers, like Nvidia, could help justify some of the big investments those companies are making in AI. AI-focused companies with their big market values have been behind many of the big market swings and most of Wall Street?s gains.

In Asia, Japan?s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.51% while the Topix inched higher. The Kospi dropped 1.84% at open while the small-cap Kosdaq gained 0.15%. Australia?s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 added 0.1%.

Treasury yields slipped in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.61% from 4.63% from late Tuesday.

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