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Update: Equities Mostly Lower as Oil Prices Extend Rally

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Update: Equities Mostly Lower as Oil Prices Extend Rally

(Updates with market moves at the end of the day.)

US equity benchmarks ended mostly lower Wednesday ahead of key earnings releases, while oil prices headed for their fourth consecutive day of gains.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.6% to 25,690.90, while the S&P 500 edged down 0.1% to 7,498.96. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed at 52,218.58. Among sectors, communication services led the laggards, while utilities paced the gainers.

Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) and electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla (TSLA) released their quarterly earnings after the closing bell.

Texas Instruments (TXN), IBM (IBM), ServiceNow (NOW) and CSX (CSX) were also scheduled to release their results after market close.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 2.5% at $86.41 a barrel in Wednesday late-afternoon trade, while Brent advanced 3% to $93.76. Brent briefly traded above $95 earlier Wednesday amid escalating tensions between the US and Iran.

In a social media post Wednesday, US President Donald Trump vowed to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant every time Tehran attacks ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it hit Jordan's King Faisal and Prince Hassan bases with missiles and drones, claiming to have targeted US military equipment in response to recent American strikes, CNN reported. The US Central Command said Tuesday it struck Iran for the 11th consecutive evening.

More tankers changed course in the Red Sea Wednesday following threats by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis to attack vessels using Saudi Arabian ports, BBC and Reuters reported.

Treasury yields were higher, with the two-year rate up 4.5 basis points at 4.31% and the 10-year rate rising 3.3 basis points to 4.66%.

In corporate news, shares of Super Micro Computer (SMCI) jumped nearly 20%, the best performer on the S&P 500. The company said in a preliminary business update late Tuesday that it received more than $60 billion in new orders during its fiscal fourth quarter. It raised the gross margin outlook for the period.

Alaska Air (ALK) fell 2.4% as the airline late Tuesday issued a downbeat third-quarter earnings outlook and swung to a second-quarter loss.

Gold was up 1.5% at $4,135.60 per troy ounce, while silver gained 1.4% to $59.92 per ounce.

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Bajaj Auto (NSE:BAJAJ-AUTO, BOM:532977) reported record quarterly profit and revenue in the fiscal first quarter ended June 30 on the back of strong demand for its two-wheelers and electric vehicles at home and overseas.Consolidated net profit rose 45.9% to 32.3 billion Indian rupees from 22.1 billion rupees a year earlier, according to a bourse filing Tuesday.Earnings per share climbed to 106.80 rupees from 75 rupees.Revenue from operations surged 37% year over year to an all-time high of 172.4 billion rupees, the company said, citing record quarterly volumes.Quarterly sales volume stood at 1.4 million units, up 29% from 1.1 million units a year prior. The increase was mainly driven by a 54% jump in exports and an 11% increase in domestic sales.The upbeat performance was also boosted by the first full-quarter consolidation of Bajaj Mobility AG, the Austria-based parent of European premium motorcycles manufacturer KTM Group.During an earnings call, Bajaj Auto's Joint Managing Director Rakesh Sharma acknowledged that the company delivered its "highest quarterly performance across all parameters.""We are looking at moving exports to beyond the 250,000 per month level this quarter and onwards. As you will recall, we were just a few quarters earlier trying to knock at 200,000," Sharma said.The company's record figures came despite inflationary pressures."The commodity inflation we absorbed in this single quarter was greater than the totality of the inflation that we've experienced over the previous two financial years put together," Bajaj Auto CFO Dinesh Thapar told analysts during the earnings call."That, I believe, gives you a sense of the sheer intensity and enormity of the issue that we were faced with on the cost environment."Thapar added that pricing actions taken in April and June offset nearly half of the inflationary hit.In June, India's producer price inflation accelerated to an all-time high of 9.57%.Looking ahead, Bajaj said it plans an "exhaustive portfolio makeover" within the next six weeks, including introducing a new 150cc and 125cc under the Pulsar brand.

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Update: Hungary Probes BYD Investment After Ex-Foreign Minister Takes Job at Carmaker

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