US Stocks Near Record Highs Amid Earnings Boom and Oil Price Volatility

Stocks on Wall Street hovered near record highs on Wednesday after two days of big gains. The S&P 500 index fell 12.97 points, or 0.2%, to close at 7,723.55, while the Dow Jones industrial Average rose 263.24 points, or 0.5%, to 54,349.12.

The Nasdaq fell 221.55 points, or 0.8%, to 26,363.44, weighed down by big technology companies losing ground. Google's parent company, Alphabet, dropped 4% and Microsoft fell 1.1%. However, the Walt Disney Co. rose 3.6% after easily beating Wall Street's profit forecasts.

Booking Holdings jumped 6.6% due to strong travel demand driving profit and revenue growth during its most recent quarter. The market has been generally rising as companies head into the closing stretch of their latest round of earnings reports with sharp overall gains.

The price of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.1% to $79.45 a barrel. Oil prices have been swinging for months and were as high as $102 per barrel at one point during the conflict between the US and Iran that has stifled the global supply of oil and rattled energy markets.