Overnight Markets: Wall Street erases gains on surging crude prices

Wall Street pared gains to end little changed on Tuesday after the Dow Jones crossed 13,000 for the first time since May 2008 as approval of Greece’s bailout was offset by economic concern with crude oil surging to a nine-month high.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 16 points, or 0.12%, at 12,966. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up one point, or 0.07%, at 1,362. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down three points, or 0.11%, at 2,949.

Stocks received some support after eurozone finance ministers agreed on a €130 billion rescue for Greece to avert a chaotic default after forcing Athens to commit to unpopular cuts and private bondholders agreed to take bigger losses.

However, punters started selling after crude prices reached fresh highs. US crude futures jumped 2.5% to a nine-month high of $105.84 a barrel on Iran supply worries.

Energy shares had the biggest gain with Chevron shares gaining 1.6%, giving the Dow its biggest boost.

Elsewhere, Wal-Mart shares declined 3.9%, erasing most of the stock's gains so far in 2012.

Among the day's gainers, Home Depot was up 0.4% after the home improvement chain's quarterly profit beat estimates. Macy's climbed 1.2% as the department store chain posted higher profit and forecast more sales gains this year. Kraft Foods advanced 1.5% after the food company forecast earnings growth of at least 9% this year.

On Nasdaq, Apple was up 2.5% after the US International Trade Commission ruled the iPhone maker did not infringe patented technology owned by Android phonemaker HTC Corp. Dell fell 4.7% in after-hours trading after forecasting fiscal first-quarter revenue below Wall Street's expectations. Software company Intuit’s shares added 2.9% after reporting a rise in quarterly revenue and profit.

In Asia, equities fell for a second day on Wednesday after oil prices surged to a nine-month high and as investors warned that a Greece bailout won’t solve Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.5% to 127 as of 10:36 a.m. in Tokyo. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average swung between gains and losses. South Korea’s Kospi Index declined 0.4% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index decreased 0.3%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.6%.

In company news, Canon fell 2.2% in Tokyo, Sony slipped 1.5% and Wilmar International, the world’s No. 1 palm oil processing company, dropped 9.2%.