Investing.com -- U.S. stocks wobbled on Wednesday ahead of more corporate earnings, with numbers from entertainment giant Disney the highlight.
By 9:41 ET (13:41 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 7 points or flat, while the S&P 500 was down less than 0.1% and the NASDAQ Composite was down 0.2%.
The benchmark Wall Street indices recorded a down day on Tuesday, pressured by losses in the banking sector after Moody’s rating agency cut its rating of 10 midsized lenders, citing concerns over sluggish deposits, elevated funding costs, and risks to commercial real estate assets.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell just over 150 points, or 0.5%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slumped 0.8%, and the broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.4%.
Disney offers the day’s earnings highlight
The quarterly corporate earnings season remains in focus, with quarterly results from Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) the day’s highlight, scheduled to be released after the close.
The media conglomerate is expected to face tough questions over recent box office failures, while its TV division, which once financed high-profile mergers, has struggled to entice lucrative advertisers, and its streaming unit is not projected to make a profit until next year.
Penn Entertainment (NASDAQ:PENN) stock rose 11% after the online bettor signed a $2 billion deal with ESPN sports network, with Penn rebranding its U.S. sports betting portals, currently known as Barstool Sportsbook, as ESPN Bet.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) dipped 0.8% following a Reuters report that the online e-commerce giant is in negotiations over joining a number of other technology firms as an anchor investor in Softbank-owned chip designer Arm's planned initial public offering.
Fed speakers hint at rate-hiking pause
There’s little in the way of tier one economic data due for release Wednesday, with Thursday’s release of the latest U.S. consumer inflation data the week’s clear highlight.
Ahead of that Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker suggested on Tuesday that interest rates are high enough already, echoing the view of Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic.
Crude rebounds after weak Chinese inflation data
Oil prices rebounded after early losses Wednesday, helped by the wider boost to risk sentiment.
The market retreated earlier Wednesday after the release of weak inflation data raised further concerns about the health of the Chinese economy, the world's largest oil importer.
Official inventory data from the Energy Information Administration is due later in the session, after the industry body American Petroleum Institute released data on Tuesday showing that U.S. crude inventories grew by over 4 million barrels last week.
U.S crude futures were up 1% to $83.77 a barrel, while Brent futures were up 0.8% to $86.92 a barrel. Gold fell 0.1% to $1,957.
(Peter Nurse and Oliver Gray contributed to this item.)