US stocks edge higher in early trading as falling oil prices help take pressure off the market

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are edging higher on Wall Street as falling bond yields and lower oil prices help ease pressure on the market. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% in early trading Wednesday. The index is coming off two days of declines driven by losses in Big Tech companies. The Dow inched up 76 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.4%. Crude oil prices fell. Brent crude dropped 3.9%, bringing it closer to where it was before the war with Iran started. Gold fell below $4,000 an ounce for the first time since November.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Wall Street was poised to open with modest gains Wednesday following a global sell-off in big technology stocks a day earlier.

Futures for the S&P 500 inched up 0.1% before the opening bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were flat. Nasdaq futures were up 0.3%.

Some of the companies hit hardest by selling Tuesday took back some of those losses before the market opened.

Chipmaker Micron, which tumbled more than 13% on Tuesday, gained 3.2% overnight. Marvell Technology rose 1.5% in premarket after skidding 9.4% a day earlier.

This week’s selling has largely targeted companies that have seen their values surge amid the frenzy over artificial intelligence technology. Their pricey stock values give them more influence over the broader market’s direction.

Outside of the AI selloff, shares of Google parent company Alphabet inched higher overnight after it was announced that it would replace Verizon on the Dow Jones Industrial average Monday. Alphabet will become the fifth Magnificent 7 company to join the index.

Take-Two Interactive jumped 3% after announcing early Wednesday that its Rockstar Games would begin taking pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI, the latest of its blockbuster game series, on Thursday at midnight.

Oil prices fell again, continuing to edge closer to where they were before the Iran war started in late February. More ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz while U.S.-Iran talks on a permanent end to the Iran war continued to make progress.

Still, while vessel crossings in the strait increased in recent days, they remained well below prewar levels, they noted.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell $1.59 to $75.21 a barrel. It has been trading below $80 in recent days but is still elevated compared with the approximately $70 per barrel in late February before the war began.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.67 to $71.54 a barrel. It was around $67 a barrel before the war.

Early Wednesday, President Donald Trump said the Justice Department will investigate oil companies for price gouging

Trump said on social media that gasoline prices are not matching the decline in oil prices, so he has told the Justice Department “to immediately start looking into this.”

Crude oil prices have eased with the interim deal with Iran, which has enabled more oil tankers to start passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Prices at the pump are averaging $3.93 a gallon, according to AAA. Gasoline costs have fallen over the past month, just not as much as Trump would like.

“In other words, customers are being ‘gouged,’” Trump posted. “I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this. Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing!”

Investors are awaiting a report due Thursday on May’s personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measurement of inflation in the U.S.

Bond yields have remained higher as inflation concerns grew amid global energy shocks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury settled at 4.48% early Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve has signaled that it could raise interest rates at least once before the end of the year. Wall Street sees an 85% chance that the central bank will raise its benchmark interest rate this year, according to date from CME Group. That’s compared to 60% a week earlier.

The potential for higher interest rates can stifle future spending and hurt prices for investments.

Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, Britain’s FTSE 100 was unchanged, while Germany’s DAX fell 1.1% and France’s CAC 40 ticked up 0.2%.

In Asia, South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index was up 3.3% to 8,471.02, recovering from its 10% decline on Tuesday. Shares of memory chipmaker SK Hynix, one of the country’s most valuable stocks, climbed 1%. Samsung Electronics jumped 9.8%, after Tuesday’s 12.3% plummet.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.9% to 69,174.97 after falling 3.6% on Tuesday.

Taiwan’s Taiex, which is also heavily influenced by tech shares, fell 2.2%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 0.3% higher at 23,412.18. The Shanghai Composite index was up 0.1% to 4,110.81. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.2% to 8,808.40.

The big falls in tech shares were an “illustration of rising volatility” in these stocks, said James Reilly, senior markets economist at Capital Economics. “This is particularly true in Korea where domestic retail buyers are taking on an increasing role,” he said.

Chan Ho-him And Matt Ott, The Associated Press

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