Investing.com – Wall Street traded flat on Wednesday as U.S. President Donald Trump’s abrupt dismal of FBI director James Comey made market players cautious and Disney earnings dampened investor enthusiasm.
At 11:32AM ET (15:32GMT), the Dow Jones slipped 9 points, or 0.04%, the S&P 500 edged forward 1 point, or 0.03%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 4 points, or 0.07%.
Volatility remained near 23-year lows with the widely-watched CBOE Volatility Index, known as the VIX or investor fear gauge, set to close below for a third straight session, something strategists at LPL Financial say has only happened one other time in December 1993.
As another indication of market lethargy, these experts added that the 10-day range for the S&P 500 as of yesterday was just 1.01%. That only happens 0.07% of the time since 1970, they said.
Market players were on edge Wednesday after Trump fired Comey the previous evening in a move that shocked Washington, over his handling of an election-year email scandal involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Democrats immediately accused Trump of having political motives, as Comey had been leading his agency's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and possible collusion with Trump's campaign.
Market analysts warned that Comey's firing could create a sideshow that may delay the Trump Administration's plans on tax reform and infrastructure spending, while some experts suggested investors were spooked by yet another example of Trump’s unpredictable behavior which puts markets on edge.
On the business front, Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) led decliners on the Dow with losses of nearly 3% as a decline in subscribers and higher programming costs at cash-cow ESPN caused the entertainment giant’s revenues to miss consensus.
Priceline.com (NASDAQ:PCLN) was also among the top decliners on the S&P 500, down more than 4%, as the travel website operator issued a current quarter earnings guidance that missed consensus.
Fossil Group (NASDAQ:FOSL) plunged more than 20% after the designer company reported a greater-than-expected loss and miss on revenue for the current quarter.
Yelp (NYSE:YELP) shares tanked almost 18% after the company reported weak full-year and second-quarter guidance.
Not all earnings news was bad as both NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) surged more than 14% and led advancers on the S&P 500 Wednesday.
After markets close, Snap (NYSE:SNAP) is set to report its first earnings since its IPO earlier this year.
In a slow day for economic releases, both import and export prices rose more than expected in April.
Meanwhile, oil prices jumped more than a $1 after official data on U.S. crude inventories showed a massive drawdown.
U.S. crude futures gained 3.03% to $47.27 by 11:33AM ET (15:33GMT), while Brent oil rose 2.81% to $50.10.