NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. stock indexes held steady in early trading Wednesday after the price of oil stabilized. Markets elsewhere around the world were mixed, while stocks in mainland China got a small boost after they got the OK to join a widely followed index of emerging-market stocks.
KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 2 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,439, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average was close to flat at 21,466, and the Nasdaq composite rose 22, or 0.4 percent, to 6,210.
CRUDE REVIVAL: Benchmark U.S. crude ticked up by 6 cents to $43.57 per barrel, a day after sinking to its lowest price of the year on continued speculation that supplies will overwhelm demand. Brent crude, the international standard, dipped 5 cents to $45.97.
Oil’s slide a day earlier yanked energy stocks lower, which in turn pulled the S&P 500 back from its record high. On Wednesday, energy stocks were down again, but not by nearly as much as the prior day: 0.3 percent versus 1.2 percent.
OPENING UP: Red Hat, an open-source software company, surged to one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500 after reporting better-than-expected earnings for its latest quarter. Its forecast for revenue and earnings this fiscal year also topped analysts’ expectations. Its stock rose $7.59, or 8.4 percent, to $97.55.