Stocks Opened Higher and Turned Negative

U.S. stocks opened higher and turned negative in the early trading on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 5.65 points, or 0.03%, to 18,342.02. The S&P 500 was off 1.62 points, or 0.08%, to 2,150.52. The Nasdaq Composite was down 2.08 points, or 0.04%, to 5,020.74.

Crude-oil prices pulled back Wednesday as investors booked some profits following the recent surge in futures and worried about a rise in U.S. crude supply. Light, sweet crude futures for delivery in August dropped 68 cents, or 1.4%, to $46.12 a barrel, while September Brent crude fell 86, or 1.8%, to $47.60 a barrel.

Entergy Corp. announced Wednesday it is in talks with Exelon over the possible sale of its James A. FitzPatrick nuclear plant in upstate New York, throwing a potential lifeline to the struggling facility which Entergy had planned to close.

United Continental Holdings Inc warned on Tuesday it expects to write off a quarter billion dollars in assets because a U.S. regulatory decision allowing more take-offs and landings in Newark, New Jersey, diminished the value of the airlines’s slots there.