Stocks Ended Mixed, Erased Early Losses

U.S stocks ended mixed on Wednesday, as investors wrestled with climbing government bond yields. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 59.70 points, or 0.25%, to 24,083.83. The S&P 500 added 4.84 points, or 0.18%, to 2,639.40. The Nasdaq was down 3.62 points, or 0.05%, to 7,003.74.

Oil prices finished higher Wednesday in volatile trading, with concerns surrounding Iran and the risks to global crude supplies helping to erase earlier losses fed by an unexpected weekly rise in U.S. inventories. June West Texas Intermediate crude rose 35 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $68.05 a barrel. Global benchmark June Brent added 14 cents, or 0.2%, at $74 a barrel.

Facebook reported earnings of $1.69 per share on $11.97 billion in revenues for the quarter that beat Wall Street’s estimates. The social network also reported 2.2 billion monthly active users worldwide, up from 2.13 billion monthly active users in the previous quarter.

Qualcomm Inc’s quarterly profit fell 51.5 percent due to higher costs and as the chipmaker sold fewer modem semiconductors used in mobile phones. Net income fell to $363 million or 24 cents per share in the three months ended March 25, from $749 million or 50 cents per share a year earlier.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) reported higher profit than expected in an earnings report Wednesday. It reported first-quarter net income of $81 million, or 8 cents a share, on sales of $1.65 billion, up about 40% from $1.34 billion a year ago.