US MARKETS
Lackluster earnings from a pair of blue-chip technology companies weighed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, handing the index its first loss in three days. The blue-chip Dow finished near the day's lows, falling 82.79 points, or 0.63%, to 13032.75. The Standard Poor's 500-stock index gave up 5.64 points, or 0.41%, to 1385.14, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 11.37 points, or 0.37%, to 3031.45. The pullback, which chipped into the Dow's two-day run of 266 points, was driven in large part by tech stocks, as investors digested disappointing earnings reports from International Business Machines and Intel. IBM fell 3.5% after missing first-quarter revenue expectations amid weakness in hardware sales, though earnings topped expectations. IBM, the heaviest component on the price weighted Dow, erased 55 points from the Dow, accounting for the bulk of the day's losses. Intel, another Dow component, dropped 1.8% after the semiconductor giant reported first-quarter gross margins that were off slightly from the previous quarter. Intel topped earnings estimates while revenue came in just above expectations. Offsetting some of the declines were consumer discretionary and consumer staple stocks. Also weighing on investor sentiment was a drop in European stocks. Spain's IBEX-35 slumped 4% after the Bank of Spain said commercial banks will need EUR29.08 billion ($38.17 billion) worth of extra provisions and EUR15.57 billion worth of core capital, and that the ratio of bad loans held by banks rose to a 17-year high of 8.16% in February. In other corporate headlines, Yahoo rose 3.2% after the online media company's first-quarter earnings and revenue topped forecasts. Berkshire Hathaway's Class B shares slipped 1.3% after Warren Buffett, the company's chairman and chief executive, disclosed that he has stage 1 prostate cancer, which is an early form that is treatable.

EUROPEAN MARKETS
Spanish stocks plunged, leading European markets lower, as the level of bad loans in the country's troubled banking sector continued to rise. Investors were also jittery ahead of Thursday's auction of Spanish 10-year debt, considered a bigger test of foreign buying than Tuesday's auction. Financials led European markets lower. Overall, the Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.7% to 257.71. Spain's IBEX 35 index tumbled 4% to 7079.20. Shares of Banco Santander fell 4%, and BBVA lost 3.1% as the Bank of Spain said the ratio of bad loans for the sector hit a 17-year high in February of 8.2%. The central bank also said commercial banks need EUR29.08 billion worth of extra provisions and EUR15.57 billion worth of core capital as they continue to grapple with the aftermath of Spain's decade-long property boom and subsequent bust. Bank shares around the region also were hit by a report from the International Monetary Fund warning that Spain and Italy would be the most affected by a severe credit crunch, as banks look to cut their balance sheets. Also pulling down the Spanish index was a 7.9% slide in utility Iberdola after Spanish construction firm Actividades de Construccion y Servicios sold a 3.69% stake in the power utility at a 7.2% discount to Tuesday's close and booked a loss on the holding. ACS shares fell 6.1%. Shares in Repsol fell 6.2% as investors continued to digest news Argentina intends to nationalize the energy major's majority-held YPF SA unit. Italian stocks were also under pressure. The FTSE MIB index dropped 2.4% to 14580.15, as UniCredit sank 4.9%. The government slashed its economic growth and fiscal forecasts, saying it won't balance its budget as pledged in 2013, but instead will run a deficit of 0.5% of gross domestic product. It now expects the economy to contract 1.2% this year, far more than the previous forecast of 0.5%. Among other major national benchmarks, Paris's CAC-40 index dropped 1.6% to 3240.29 and Frankfurt's DAX fell 1% to 6732.03. London's FTSE 100 index lost a more modest 0.4% to 5745.29. Luxury-goods group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton fell 3.3%. The group said first-quarter sales rose 25% amid demand for handbags, spirits and expensive watches. German engineering group Siemens declined 2.5% on a report in the Financial Times Deutschland that the company will scrap its full-year profit goal. A spokesman for Siemens declined to comment. Syngenta dropped 2.6% in Zurich as the specialty chemicals firm warned of headwinds from currencies and raw-materials prices.

ASIAN MARKETS
Asian stock markets rallied Wednesday as positive news from Europe and strong U.S. corporate earnings helped restore risk appetite, with technology, commodity and banking shares leading the charge. Leading Asian benchmarks, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average soared 2.1%, with the yen's pullback underpinning exporter stocks. China's Shanghai Composite Index climbed 2.0%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.1%, South Korea's Kospi added 1.0% and Taiwan's Taiex gained 0.3%. Elsewhere, the Philippine stock benchmark rose 0.4% to 5,179.84, setting a record closing high. The region's gains came even as a fund manager survey by Bank of America Merrill Lynch report found investors are less optimistic about global growth. Banking major Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group rallied 2.9% in Tokyo, HSBC Holdings PLC rose 1.9% in Hong Kong and Samsung Securities advanced 2.2% in Seoul. Among resource stocks, steel maker JFE Holdings jumped 3.0% and Pacific Metals spiked 5% in Tokyo, energy major Cnooc Ltd. rallied 3.3% in Hong Kong, while gold miner Zijn Mining Group climbed 1.7% in Hong Kong and 3.1% in Shanghai. Japanese exporters rallied as the yen weakened against the dollar and the euro. Nissan Motor Co. jumped 4.2%, while Honda Motor Co. added 3.9%. Technology shares climbed after shares of Apple Inc. soared overnight. In Tokyo, Canon rose 3.2%, and Toshiba gained 2.7%, while Samsung Electronics jumped 3.5% in Seoul.

COMMODITIES
Base metals closed mostly lower on the London Metal Exchange Wednesday after jitters over Spain's fiscal position drove investors out of the industrial commodities ahead of Thursday's closely watched bond auction. Three-month copper ended at $8,049 a metric ton, down $1 on Tuesday's close. Three-month aluminum closed down $17, at $2,059/ton, and three-month nickel was $180 lower, at $17,645/ton. Crude oil futures settled lower Wednesday after U.S. inventories rose more than expected. Inventories rose 3.856 million barrels nationwide last week, well beyond the 900,000-barrel rise that analysts expected, data from the Energy Information Administration show. Crude stocks of 369 million barrels are at an 11-month high, EIA data show. Light, sweet crude oil for May delivery settled 1.5%, or $1.53 lower, at $102.67 a barrel. Front-month ICE Brent crude for June delivery settled 81 cents lower, at $117.94 a barrel, its lowest price since Feb. 13. Brent's premium to the U.S. benchmark was $15.30 a barrel at Wednesday's settlement, up from $14.58 a day earlier, which was the lowest since Feb. 1. Gold futures gave up the previous day's gains amid a weaker tone to equity markets and as investor attention turned to the upcoming government debt sale in Spain. The most actively traded contract, for June delivery, fell $11.50, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,639.60 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.