Dow, S&P 500 rise with oil, Nasdaq falls

New York - Energy and industrial names surged on Wednesday with rising oil prices, but the Nasdaq finished lower as Google parent Alphabet and some other leading technology names retreated.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 183.12 points (1.13%) to 16 336.66.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 9.50 (0.50%) to 1 912.53, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 12.71 (0.28%) to 4 504.24.

On the Dow, ExxonMobil jumped 5.2% while Caterpillar climbed 4.3% as oil prices rallied on renewed speculation of a potential cut in global oil production.

"It's been a clear rotation out of some of the tech winners into industrials," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities.

Some of the biggest gainers from recent months dropped, including Amazon, Facebook and Google parent Alphabet, which lost 4.9%.

As a result, Alphabet ceded its title of most valuable company after just one day back to Apple, which rose 2.0%.

General Motors fell 2.5% despite reporting fourth-quarter earnings that translated into $1.39, a solid 18 cents above analyst expectations. Barclays cited worries the booming US auto market has peaked.

Yahoo dropped 4.7% as it reported an annual loss of $4.4bn, announced it was cutting 15% of its workforce and suggested it could seek a deal to sell or merge the company.

Wells Fargo shed 1.8% after announcing a preliminary agreement to pay $1.2bn to settle charges by US government authorities that it improperly certified loans for a federal mortgage insurance program.

Chipotle Mexican Grill lost 2.9% as it reported a 44% decline in fourth-quarter earnings to $67.9m after a pair of E. coli outbreaks depressed sales. Investment bank Jefferies warned of a "possible long road to recovery."

Comcast rose 6.0% after it hiked its dividend by 10% and authorized an additional $10bn in share repurchases. Net income for the fourth quarter rose 2.4% to $2.0bn.

US home improvement retailer Lowe's fell 6.2% on news it will acquire Canadian rival Rona for about $2.3bn.

Food Company Mondelez International slumped 6.5% after reporting a $728m loss in the fourth quarter, mainly due to an accounting charge related to its struggling Venezuela operations.