Market today

US stock indices were volatile in the early hours of Wednesday morning before the opening of trading on Wall Street, with both the Nasdaq and S&P technology indices rising most of the night, but the Dow Jones rising late into the night.

The series of fourth-quarter earnings reports will continue on Wednesday, and Meta Platforms will draw attention to earnings on Wednesday afternoon, when parent Facebook releases its fourth-quarter results.

Prior to the release of Facebook and Meta's reports, the focus will be on pharmaceutical companies AmerisourceBergen, managed care provider Humana and biotech firm AbbVie will report before the open.

The benchmark Wall Street S&P 500 index added 0.7% on Tuesday, helped by gains in energy and technology stocks during a late buying spurt.

US stocks are having their worst month since the pandemic began almost two years ago.

Investors are trying to figure out how the economy and corporate profits will be affected by the Federal Reserve's upcoming rate hike designed to reduce inflation, which has risen to a four-decade high.

The S&P 500 index rose to 4,546.54 on Tuesday. That was 5.2 per cent below its all-time high of 3 January.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.8% to 35,405.24 points. The Nasdaq composite index added 0.7% to 14,346 points.

ExxonMobil rose 6.4% after the company reported strong fourth-quarter earnings. Hewlett Packard Enterprise rose 2.9%.

The virus pandemic remains a lingering threat and each new variant could trigger a spike in cases threatening business and consumer activity.

Fed officials said in mid-December that plans to roll back bond purchases and other price-hiking stimulus would be accelerated to lower inflation.

Consumers have continued to spend despite rising prices, but retail purchases are projected to dampen and stunt economic growth.

Investors expect the Fed to raise rates at least four times this year, starting in March.

In energy markets, US benchmark crude rose 27 cents to $88.47 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 5 cents on Tuesday to $88.20. Brent crude, the benchmark price for international crude, added 30 cents to $89.46 a barrel in London. It fell 10 cents to $89.16 in the previous session.