US Stocks Fall Again as Oil, Gold Rise 01/14 09:12

   Wall Street is sinking again on Wednesday following mixed profit reports 
from several big banks.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street is sinking again on Wednesday following mixed 
profit reports from several big banks.

   The S&P 500 fell 0.7% and was on track for a second straight drop after 
setting its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 182 
points, or 0.4%, as of 9:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% 
lower.

   Some nervousness was hanging over financial markets. Crude prices added to 
their big recent gains as protests in Iran could lead to disruptions in the 
flow of oil. Gold's price rose nearly 1% toward further records, while Treasury 
yields edged lower as investors looked for investments that are considered 
safer to hold.

   On Wall Street, Wells Fargo helped pull the U.S. stock market lower after 
falling 4.6%. The San Francisco-based bank reported weaker profit and revenue 
for the latest quarter than expected, with analysts citing lower trading fees 
and other miscellaneous items.

   Bank of America fell 3.8% despite reporting stronger profit than analysts 
expected. Citigroup, which is in the midst of a turnaround under Chair and CEO 
Jane Fraser, swung between gains and losses following its own profit report and 
was most recently down 1.1%.

   Companies across industries need to report strong growth in profits to 
justify how high their stock prices have run recently. Analysts are looking for 
businesses across the S&P 500 to report earnings per share for the final three 
months of 2025 that are roughly 8% higher than a year earlier, according to 
FactSet.

   Biogen tumbled 6% for one of the market's sharpest losses after the biotech 
company said it expects to take a hit to its profit for the fourth quarter of 
2025 due to research and development expenses and other costs that it acquired.

   Keeping the S&P 500 from steeper losses were Exxon Mobil and other oil 
companies. Exxon Mobil rose 1.9%, and ConocoPhillips rallied 3.2% as the price 
of a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude added 0.9% to bring its gain for the year 
above 7%.

   Iran is a member of the OPEC group that helps set oil prices, and protests 
there could lead to disruptions in production and squeeze supplies of crude.

   In the bond market, Treasury yields inched lower following some mixed 
reports on the U.S. economy.

   One said that shoppers spent more at U.S. retailers in November than 
economists expected. That could be an encouraging signal about the main engine 
of the U.S. economy, but economists pointed to some concerning signals were 
underneath the surface. Sales of big-ticket items fell from the prior year, 
noted Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management.

   A separate report said prices rose modestly at the U.S. wholesale level in 
November. It followed a report on Tuesday that said inflation at the U.S. 
consumer level was close last month to economists' expectations, though it 
remained above the Federal Reserve's 2% target.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury ticked down to 4.15% from 4.18% late 
Tuesday.

   In stock markets abroad, Japan's Nikkei 225 rallied 1.5% to another record 
expectations grew that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi may call general elections 
soon.

   Indexes were mixed elsewhere. Stocks rose 0.6% in Hong Kong but fell 0.3% in 
Shanghai after a report showed China's trade surplus surged 20% in 2025 to a 
record despite President Donald Trump's tariffs.