Stocks Opened Slightly Higher on Rising U.S. Yields

U.S. stocks opened slightly higher on Wednesday as investors assessed the impact of a surge in bond yields. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately gained 43.26 points, or 0.18%, to 24,749.67. The S&P 500 advanced 6.74 points, or 0.25%, to 2,718.19. The Nasdaq Composite rose 16.90 points, or 0.23%, to 7,368.53.

Brent crude oil pulled back from a 3½-year high Wednesday, while U.S. oil saw muted action, as investors reassessed appetite for crude after a multisession run-up. West Texas Intermediate futures traded at break-even levels at $71.33 a barrel. Brent crude shed 28 cents, or 0.4%, to $78.15 a barrel.

Macy’s Inc said stellar performance at its businesses helped push quarterly same-store sales and profit well above Wall Street estimates, signaling that the company was keeping up in a fiercely competitive retail landscape. First-quarter same-store sales rose 4.2 percent, easily beating Wall Street’s 1.4 percent average estimate. The company said it now expects adjusted profit of $3.75 to $3.95 per share for the year, up from a prior forecast of $3.55 to $3.75.

Tencent Holdings Ltd. posted a quarterly profit that exceeded estimates, bolstered by mobile game blockbusters like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds as users on China’s most popular social network surpassed a billion for the first time. Tencent posted a 61 percent jump in net income to 23.3 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) in the three months ended March, outstripping the 17.4 billion-yuan average projection.