By Akane Otani and Mike Bird 

U.S. stocks were mixed Wednesday as oil prices pared losses and investors parsed the latest stream of earnings results.

Corporate earnings have driven some of the largest moves in stocks over the past week. More than a third of S&P 500 companies have now reported quarterly results, according to FactSet, with energy, industrials and technology companies posting the weakest earnings growth so far.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 technology sector fell 0.2%, among the worst performers in the index. Apple, which posted its first annual revenue decline in 15 years on Tuesday, was the biggest loser in both the sector and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, falling 2.8%.

The company is now the biggest drag on the S&P 500 tech sector's third-quarter earnings growth, according to FactSet analyst John Butters.

"Earnings growth is going to be really, really key for continued growth in the market, even though we've muddled along without that for a while, " said Karyn Cavanaugh, senior market strategist at Voya Investment Management.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 59 points, or 0.3%, at 18228 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.1%. The S&P 500 was up less than 0.1%.

Boeing rose 1.9% and was among the biggest gainers in the Dow industrials after the aircraft maker raised its guidance for the year.

Energy shares reversed course after being among the worst performers earlier in the session. The S&P 500 energy sector climbed 0.5% after an Energy Information Administration report showed U.S. crude oil inventories fell last week. U.S. crude oil prices were recently down 0.6% at $49.70 a barrel.

Noble Energy gained 2.3%, Apache rose 2.1% and Baker Hughes ticked up 1%.

Bond yields in developed markets picked up. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was recently 1.793%, according to Tradeweb, compared with 1.758% Tuesday. German 10-year yields rose to 0.09%, from around 0.02% on Tuesday.

Elsewhere around the globe, stocks mostly fell.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index pulled back 0.4%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index dropped 0.9% and Germany's DAX declined 0.5%.

Asian stocks closed broadly lower, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 1%. Japanese equities bucked the trend with the Nikkei Stock Average closing up slightly.

In currencies, the British pound bounced back against the dollar and was recently up 0.4% at $1.2226 after falling Tuesday.

"With the terms and conditions of the U.K.'s future trade links still unclear it is too early to rule out further downside risks in sterling," said Geoffrey Yu, head of UBS Wealth Management's U.K. investment office. Mr. Yu believes sterling could fall to as low as $1.10 temporarily over the next year.

Write to Akane Otani at akane.otani@wsj.com and Mike Bird at Mike.Bird@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 26, 2016 11:52 ET (15:52 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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