NEW YORK — US stock indexes barely budged on Wednesday after oil prices climbed another 3% as fighting continues in the war with Iran.The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1%, coming off its best day in three weeks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 6 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.6%.Despite the modest moves for indexes, stocks had some big swings underneath the surface.
Philip Morris International rallied 3.3% after the seller of Marlboro cigarettes reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected.
Its shipments of smoke-free products rose 7.5%.AT&T climbed 3.5% after reporting a stronger profit than analysts expected.
CEO John Stankey also said the telecom is accelerating plans to send roughly $10 billion to its shareholders this year through the buybacks of its stock.Super Micro Computer soared 19.8% after the seller of AI servers said it expects to report stronger profit margins for the latest quarter than it had earlier forecast.
It, though, also said that revenue will likely come in at the low end of its forecasted range of $11 billion to $12.5 billion.On the losing side of the market was GE Vernova, which fell 8.7% after reporting a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.Alphabet sank 1.5% ahead of its earnings report, which arrived after trading ended for the day.Anticipation was high, and not just because the parent company of Google is one of the largest stocks on Wall Street.
It’s also one of the biggest spenders on artificial-intelligence technology.Investors are looking for signs that the deluge of dollars going into processors, computer memory and other building blocks of the AI boom are producing enough profits to make the investments worth it.
If Alphabet and other “hyperscalers” say that isn’t the case, stocks of chip companies and other AI winners would look....
