Wednesday’s session closed out mixed. The Dow and S&P 500 shed some points. The Nasdaq added fractional gains. Coca-Cola, Home Depot, and American Express led advancers, while Hewlett-Packard, Alcoa, and Caterpillar stood out among decliners. Meanwhile, existing home sales slipped slightly in February. The National Association of Realtors said sales of previously owned homes dipped 0.9 percent to a 4.59 million annualized pace from a revised 4.63 million pace in January. Elsewhere, Oracle reported earnings that exceeded expectations. The database titan said first-quarter profit hit $3.13 billion, or 62 cents a share on revenue of $9.06 billion. Economists had anticipated earnings of 56 cents a share on revenue of $9.02 billion. Looking ahead, final third-quarter GDP data will be released tomorrow.
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