U.S. equities closed with losses on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 pulled back 1.11% to 7,718.94, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 1.88% to end the day at 26,692.87. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 48.62 points, or 0.09%, to 51,621.48.

— Sean Conlon

The stock market has been volatile of late as a cocktail of elevated oil prices and persistent inflation rattles investors. That that hasn't been the case with Berkshire Hathaway.

The conglomerate's Class A shares are on track for their 10^th consecutive day of gains. That would mark their first 10-day rally since January 2018. The stock on Tuesday also hit an intraday high of $786,000 — a level not seen since Aug. 11.

The $1 trillion holding company, best known for its leadership under legendary investor Warren Buffett, is up more than 5% since the streak began as investors weigh potential tailwinds for the conglomerate under Greg Abel, who took over as CEO in January. The rally also comes as Berkshire puts its massive cash reserves to work.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read about what's behind the latest rally here.

— Paulina Likos

U.S. consumers are in the midst of one of the longest stretches of elevated inflation of the past century.

Wednesday's consumer price index release showed a 3.7% increase year over year in September. CPI has now registered around 65 months — that's more than five years — of consecutive annual readings above 2%, the longest streak since the 1990s.

Cleveland Federal President Beth Hammack said last week that high inflation has started becoming a "fact of life" for consumers.

Read the full story here.

— Alex Harring

The big U.S. oil producers have hit all-time intraday highs as crude prices grind higher due to the escalating war in the Middle East.

ExxonMobil hit $177.36, Chevron touched $222.20, and ConocoPhillips reached $142.50. Shares of the companies have since pulled back slightly from those records.

U.S. crude oil prices are up 4% this week to trade above $95 per barrel. Crude prices are rising as fighting escalates between Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthi miliants.

Iran has also stepped attacks on tankers and other commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

— Spencer Kimball

CoreWeave's stock and bonds were both hit on Wednesday as investor fear grew that some technology companies are borrowing too heavily for the artificial intelligence build-out.

Shares of the so-called neocloud nosedived 16%, while yields on its debt jumped higher. The yield to maturity on its 9.625% bond due in 2032 is sitting at 14.8%, while that of its 9.75% bond due in 2031 is around 14.9%. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

Read the full story here.

— Michelle Fox

Gold's relationship with rates is changing again and outperforming against the macro backdrop, according to Morgan Stanley.  The yellow metal remains the bank's top commodity pick, with a price target of $5,000 per ounce by Q2 2027. 

According to Morgan Stanley's commodities strategist, Amy Gower, gold should be trading below $3,000 based on its March-to-July relationship with real yields, but strong central bank buying and ETF inflows have pushed prices above $4,000.

"Gold's recent resilience suggests structural demand is increasingly offsetting macro headwinds. From here, easing yields and/or oil prices could bring upside, but gold may also prove resilient if rising yields reflect fiscal concerns or rising oil brings stagflation fears," Gower writes.

— Deena Zaidi

Bending Spoons shares are ripping more than 40% after new securities filings revealed Berkshire Hathaway is investing $330 million into the company, bringing their total stake in the Italy-based serial acquirer to 4%.

That infusion follows another $600 million the conglomerate invested in July, during Bending Spoons' initial public offering on the Nasdaq.

— CJ Haddad

While JPMorgan delivered lower than expected revenue and earnings per share during its third quarter earnings Tuesday, Mike Mayo, analyst at Wells Fargo said it's "more than mitigated" by its guidance, in a note to clients.

To kick off the third quarter earnings season, JPMorgan reported lower than expected net revenues stemming from Corporate and Commercial & Investment Bank along with a rare miss in adjusted earnings per share

JPMorgan guided for 10% net interest income growth in 2027 with only about 4% expense growth. Mayo believes that should "provide confidence of 2027 as a payoff year after a period of investments."

Wells Fargo has an overweight rating on JPMorgan stock and a price target of $390 per share.

— Paulina Likos

The three major averages began Wednesday's session lower.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4% shortly after the opening bell, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 80 points, or 0.2%.

— Sean Conlon

Shares jumped more than 2% for BlackRock after it posted better-than-expected third-quarter earnings.

The company's profit rose $1.66 billion or $10.57 per share, compared to $1.32 billion or $8.43 per share the year prior.

Assets under management also rose to $15.49 trillion compared to $13.46 trillion from the year prior. BlackRock plans to report over $35 billion in revenue by the end of 2030.

— Ananya Chetia

The consumer price index for September came in hotter than expected from the year-earlier period, renewing worries about persistent inflation in the economy.

Headline CPI increased by 3.7% last month on a year-over-year basis. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected headline CPI to rise 3.6% year over year. Month over month, CPI increased 0.6%, as expected.

Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, grew by 2.6% year over year. Economists had forecast a gain of 2.5%.

— Fred Imbert

Check out the companies making the biggest moves premarket:

• GameStop — Shares gained 2% after GameStop CEO and Chairman Ryan Cohen disclosed in a regulatory filing that he bought 844,000 shares.
• Albemarle — The chemical manufacturing company jumped 3% after Mizuho upgraded the stock to outperform from neutral. Mizuho analysts said that demand for lithium is exceeding expectations, which they said Albemarle with its improved balance sheet can capitalize on.
• Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise — Shares were down more than 2.5% and nearly 4%, respectively, after Barclays downgraded the stocks to equal weight from overweight. Both stocks have rallied in 2026, with Dell up more than 350% and HPE rising 185%, but analysts at the bank are doubtful these rallies can be sustained much longer.

Read the full list here.

— Davis Giangiulio

Morgan Stanley on Wednesday reported third-quarter results that exceeded analysts' expectations.

The firm posted $3.03 in earnings per share and $20.34 billion in revenue for the quarter, above the $2.91 per share and $19.95 billion that analysts surveyed by LSEG were expecting. Its equities trading division also posted revenue of $5.79 billion, which surpassed the StreetAccount estimate by more than $900 million.

Still, shares were last seen trading down nearly 1% following the report.

— Hugh Son and Sean Conlon

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is not happy about high memory chip prices that have accompanied the boom in the chip sector.

In a post on his social media platform X on Wednesday, he implied there could be reprisals down the road for pricing intransigence enabled by the global shortfall in memory.

"Micron has been reasonable regarding future memory prices, while others have been extortionate, which is something today's customers won't forget …" he wrote. "Micron is making is the smart move for long-term customer loyalty."

The largest memory chip makers are Micron, SK Hynix and Samsung. Three smaller, significant competitors are Kioxia, SanDisk and CXMT.

SpaceX stock is down 3.71%, as of 7:15 a.m. Wednesday.

— Tobias Burns

Bank of America shares were down 3% after the company posted third-quarter earnings. Here are the numbers:

• Earnings per share: 91 cents, may not compare with $1.10 expected
• Revenue: $30.0 billion, vs. $30.69 billion expected

The numbers come a day after BofA was hit with more than $1.2 billion in federal penalties, with regulators saying the bank failed to report more than $5 billion in "suspicious" transactions.

— Fred Imbert

The head of the International Monetary Fund has urged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to trim the deficit, warning that his plan to lean on growth to tame U.S. Government debt isn't sufficient.

"Growth of course helps, but it cannot deliver fast enough the necessary adjustments," Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said at a panel Wednesday at the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok. "Some [fiscal] measures would be necessary."

Orsted — the world's largest offshore wind developer — fell 3.12% after the Department of Justice sought to review the approval of a key wind farm project run by the Danish renewables giant in the U.S.

The DoJ on Friday asked a federal court to remand the Interior Department's approval of construction and operation plans for the Revolution Wind project in Rhode Island.

— Hugh Leask

Constraints on the diesel market will extend well into next year, the International Energy Agency warned on Wednesday.

In its October Oil Market Report, the IEA said supply would remain tight into the latter half of 2027.

A counter-seasonal tightening in gasoil markets in the third quarter, combined with "much heavier-than-normal inventory declines" in the preceding three months, had "deprived global gasoil markets of crucial stock cover ahead of the peak winter demand season," the IEA said.

Last month saw global diesel exports drop by 700,000 barrels a day year-on-year, according to IEA data. A 1.3 million barrels per day loss from Russia and the Middle East was "only partly offset by higher supply from other sources," the agency said.

Shares in ASML rose 2.6% in early dealmaking after the Netherlands-headquartered chipmaker's reported net profit of 4.96 billion euros ($1.12 billion) in its third-quarter earnings update, beating LSEG consensus forecasts of 4.1 billion euros.

Net sales, however, came in at 11.66 billion euros, falling slightly short of analysts' estimated 11.72 billion euros.

The semiconductor giant said some customers are "expressing an interest" in placing orders into 2029 and 2030, offering investors a lens into longer-term AI demand.

— Hugh Leask

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.16% shortly after 8:10 a.m. in London (3:10 a.m. E.T.), as the region's sectors and most major bourses started the session in broadly positive territory.

Technology led early gains, rising 0.84%, with telecoms adding 0.73%. Household goods rose 0.73%, and Industrial companies advanced 0.68%. On the flipside, insurance stocks fell 0.28%, while Europe's banks were 0.33% lower in morning dealmaking.

In London, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was last seen 0.11% higher. Other bourses were on firmer ground: the French CAC 40 was up 0.46% in Paris, while in Frankfurt, Germany's DAX started the session 0.42% higher. The Italian FTSE MIB was up 0.46% in Milan.

— Hugh Leask

ASML said Wednesday that some of its customers are expressing interest in placing orders for its critical semiconductor tools for 2029 and 2030 as the company reported third-quarter profit that beat expectations.

The comments will likely comfort investors who have been looking to assess the longer-term demand outlook for ASML's lithography machines.

"Our customers continue to increase their short- and medium-term equipment demand forecasts with us, driven primarily by their views on the size and duration of AI-related investments," CEO Christophe Fouquet said in a press release.

Oil rises Wednesday, amid worries over supply disruptions as tensions continue to escalate in the Middle East with fighting between Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi Arabia.

Futures for international benchmark Brent crude for December delivery gained 0.61% to $106.33 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for November advanced 0.63% to $94.73 per barrel.

Oil may rally another $20-$25 due to the Iran conflict, hedge fund manager and noted commodity trader Paul Tudor Jones said on on CNBC's "Squawk Box." 

"I am long oil... bullish oil...I think it can rally another $20 or $25 bucks," said the founder and chief investment officer of Tudor Investment.

"If something to ameliorate the situation was going to happen, it would have happened already before the midterms," he added.

— Justina Lee

South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group on Tuesday said it plans to invest $15.5 billion from 2026 through 2032 in India, a market it considers core to the company's emerging-market growth and expansion.

"India remains one of Hyundai Motor Group's most important and strategic markets globally," Euisun Chung, the executive chair of Hyundai Motor Group, said in a release following his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He added that this investment "reaffirms" the company's commitment to the Indian market for the next 30 years and beyond.

Over the seven-year plan, Hyundai said it will invest across manufacturing expansion and in developing research and development infrastructure, local supplier cultivation for parts localization, and future technology innovation.

— Priyanka Salve

China's producer price index climbed at its fastest pace in over four years, rising 5% in September as higher fuel prices pushed up costs for businesses.

The increase was higher than the 4.5% expected by economists polled by Reuters, and sharply up from the 3.8% seen in the previous month.

Consumer prices saw a 0.9% rise, marginally missing expectations of 1%, but up from 0.8% in the month before.

The higher inflation figures come as China's economy grapples with its lowest growth rate in more than three years. GDP growth for the second quarter of the year missed expectations at 4.3%.

While economic data for August showed that retail sales expanded more slowly than expected, industrial output beat expectations.

— Lim Hui Jie

Singapore's economic expansion decelerated in the third quarter of 2026, with GDP growth dropping to 5.4% after hitting a four-year high in the last quarter.

However, the GDP print beat expectations of a 5% growth from economists polled by Reuters.

Singapore back in August had lifted its annual economic growth forecast as AI-related sectors and exports powered its economy to beat expectations for the first two quarters of the year. This forecast is still mantain

GDP growth for 2026 is expected to come in at 4.5% to 5.5%, more than double the lower end of its previous forecast of 2%-4%.

— Lim Hui Jie

Asia-Pacific markets opened mixed on Wednesday. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.62%.

Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.32%, while the Topix declined 0.11%. South Korea's Kospi added 0.82% while the small-cap Kosdaq declined 0.45%.

— Lee Ying Shan

The September reading of the consumer price index is set to release Wednesday morning.

Economists polled by Dow Jones anticipate inflation to have risen by 3.6% on a year-over-year basis, up from 3.4% in the prior reading.

— Sarah Min

Asia-Pacific markets were set for a mixed open Wednesday as investors awaited a key U.S. inflation report that could offer fresh clues on the Federal Reserve's interest rate outlook.

Futures for Hong Kong's Hang Seng index stood at 24,340, marginally lower than the index's last close of 24,345.22.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.52% in its first hour of trade.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was set to rise at open, with its Chicago and Osaka futures contracts last at 68,055 and 68,100 respectively, compared with the index's previous close of 67,777.52.

— Lee Ying Shan

Bank of America was hit with more than $1.2 billion in federal penalties Tuesday after regulators said the nation's second-largest bank failed for years to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions and fix longstanding anti-money-laundering problems.

More than $1 billion of the unreported activity involved national security and other high-priority risks, including Chinese money-laundering networks and activity tied to the southwest border, Treasury said in a press release.

The action also lands less than a day before the bank reports quarterly earnings Wednesday morning.

— Luke Fountain and Kevin Breuninger

Check out the companies making headlines in extended trading:

• Bank of America — The bank stock dipped more than 2% in extended trading after the firm was hit with more than $1.2 billion in federal penalties, with regulators saying the bank failed to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions.
• GameStop — Shares gained nearly 3% after GameStop CEO and Chairman Ryan Cohen disclosed in a regulatory filing that they bought 844,000 shares.

— Sarah Min

Stock futures opened near the flatline Tuesday night.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 17 points, or 0.03%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both dipped 0.01%.

— Sarah Min