Investing.com – Wall Street last traded with mixed signs with indices whip-sawing to the tune of oil on Wednesday.
At 11:24AM ET (15:24GMT), the Dow Jones dropped 49 points, or 0.23%, the S&P 500 lost 3 points, or 0.03%, while the Nasdaq Composite traded up 26 points, or 0.43%.
Wednesday’s star in the markets was again oil after entering bear market territory the day before.
Crude had managed to move back into positive territory after Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said earlier on Wednesday that OPEC was mulling deeper cuts to combat rising U.S. shale production.
Oil also held onto gains as U.S. crude inventories fell more than forecast.
However, black gold was back in the red as Reuters reported that three OPEC delegates dismissed Zanganeh’s remarks.
U.S. crude futures lost 0.39% to $43.34 by 11:26AM ET (15:26GMT), while Brent oil traded down 0.56% to $45.76.
In the only major economic report for Wednesday’s session, existing home sales showed a surprise increase in May with NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun noting that homes are coming off the market at an extremely fast pace and that listings in an affordable price range are scarce.
The upbeat data did little to move the dollar which remained steady around the unchanged mark against major rivals for most of Wednesday.
There was however movement in cable as the pound recovered thanks to comments from Bank of England’s chief economist Andy Haldane that he would soon vote for a rate hike.
After a slew of somewhat contradicting comments from Federal Reserve (Fed) policymakers earlier this week, markets had a one-day break as they waited for Fed governor Jerome Powell to speak before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, while Friday will see St. Louis Fed president James Bullard, Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester and Fed governor Powell make public remarks.