Stock Market Today: Stocks end mixed; Shell denies talks to buy BP

Updated 4:52 p.m. EDT

Stocks ended mixed Wednesday, with AI chipmaker Nvidia surging to an all-time high,  

The S&P 500 ended flat at 6,092.16, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.31% to end the day at 19,973.55 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 106.59 points, or 0.25%, to finish the session at 42,982.43.

Nvidia reclaimed the title of most valuable company by market value, weighing in with a market cap of about $3.76 trillion..

Updated 3:33 p.m. EDT

The stock market has devolved into two stock markets: techs and everything else. And the result is a market that on the surface is not doing much but beneath the surface is churning hard.

Technology stocks are powering higher, led by record prices for Nvidia  (NVDA) , Microsoft  (MSFT) , IBM  (IBM) , Broadcom  (AVGO) , Oracle  (ORCL)  and Seagate  (STX) .

Not even a report that Shell Oil  (SHEL)  might be talking to BP  (BP)  about a merger is providing much fuel for the broader market. 

Are Shell and BP talking or not?

And it's not quite clear that Shell and BP are talking or have talked or what. The Wall Street Journal said Wednesday they were talking. Bloomberg had speculated about the idea a month ago. 

Shell denied they were talking. “This is further market speculation. No talks are taking place,” a company statement said. 

But one never knows. BP shares are still up 4.3% to $31.21 in New York. Shell shares were off 0.8% to $69.61.

Certainly, investment houses in the United Kingdom and Wall Street would love a deal like this. And with companies as big as these two, it's hard to keep a secret. 

BP has a market cap of some $85 billion but has been struggling. Shell has a  market cap of $209 billion.

Just two S&P sectors are higher

Fact is after two big days of rallies that followed the U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, stocks may need a rest.

In fact, just two of 11 Standard & Poor's 500 sectors are higher on the day: Information Technology and Communications Services.

The former includes Nvidia  (NVDA)  and Microsoft  (MSFT) , both of which hit new 52-week highs but have faded a bit in the afternoon. 

The latter includes Google parent Alphabet  (GOOGL)  and Facebook parent Meta Platforms  (META) . Alphabet is the sector's top performer.

So, at 2:50 p.m., the Nasdaq 100 Index hit a 52-week high of 22,329 but faded to 22,192, up just two points. The Nasdaq Composite had risen 61 points to 19,936, up 23 points. 

The Standard  & Poor's 500 Index was down 5 points to 6,087, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has slid 188 points to 42,901.

The drags on the market are homebuilders, cruise lines, casinos, automakers and airlines.

The list of decliners includes such stocks as Tesla  (TSLA) , General Motors  (GM) ,  UnitedHealth Group  (UNH) , payroll processor Paychex  (PAYX) , FedEx  (FDX)  and even mighty Amazon.com  (AMZN) .

Crude oil was up 87 cents to $65.25. Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up 0.3% to $66.76. 

Interest rates were a bit higher to start but drifted back. The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.29%, down from a high of 4.34% early in the day and 4.296% at Tuesday's close.

Housing stocks, we should add, fell because the Commerce Department's monthly report on new-home sales was worse than expected. Sales in the South were a big drag. The estimate was 625,000 homes sold, the lowest sales rate since 2022.

Updated 11:50 a.m. EDT

WSJ: Shell in early talks to buy BP

Shell  (SHEL)  is in early talks to buy BP  (BP) , The Wall Street Journal reported. BP's current market value is around $87 billion.

Such a tieup, the paper reported, "would be a landmark combination of two so-called supermajor oil companies, a group of multinational behemoths that dominate the production of the world’s most important energy sources."