Nasdaq Falls 1%; Dow and S&P Post Small Gains

The U.S. equity market traded lower for most of the day on Wednesday, but a late rally lifted both the Dow and S&P into positive territory at the close. The Nasdaq finished down 1% after a very disappointing earnings report from large-cap tech name Oracle ORCL on Tuesday after the close of trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the session with a gain of 4 points to close at 12,107. The widely watched blue-chip index traded in a range between 11,999 and 12,119. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY gained 0.19% to $124.17. Volume was lighter than normal with around 193 million SPY shares trading hands compared to a 3-month daily average of 255 million. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, lost 1.43% to $55.13. The underperformance in the Nasdaq 100 was largely attributable to a 11.66% drop in Oracle ORCL after disappointing earnings. Crude oil rose on Wednesday. NYMEX crude futures gained 1.77% to $98.96 while ICE Brent contracts added 1.16% to $107.97. The United States Oil Fund ETF USO posted a gain of 1.55% and closed at $38.11. Gold was essentially unchanged on the day. At last check, COMEX gold futures had lost 0.03% to $1,617.10. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF GLD closed up 0.11% on the day at $157.16 and COMEX silver futures fell 0.60% to $29.36. Treasuries declined sharply on the session. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT lost 1.36% to $119.10. The yield on the 10-Year Note rose 4.5 basis points to 1.97%. The U.S. Dollar hugged the flatline on the day. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, was unchanged at $22.38. The closely watched EUR/USD pair is currently trading at $1.3042. Get realtime market updates and profitable trading ideas with Benzinga's news feed, Benzinga Pro, here.