The Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday that U.S. crude inventories fell by 9.9 million barrels for the week ended Jan. 22. The data compared with the average decline of 1.7 million barrels forecast by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts. The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday reported a 5.3 million-barrel decrease, according to sources. The EIA data also showed crude stocks at the Cushing, Okla., storage hub fell by 2.3 million barrels for the week. Gasoline supply, meanwhile, climbed by 2.5 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles were down by 800,000 barrels. The S&P Global Platts survey had forecast a supply increase of 1.2 million barrels for gasoline and a decline of 800,000 barrels for distillate inventories. March West Texas Intermediate crude moved up after the data, trading 26 cents, or 0.5%, higher at $52.87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices were at $52.50 before the supply data.

Momentous changes can take place when the U.S. government gets behind an idea.

Investors were steeped in gloom for Wednesday as the U.K. faces the worst death toll in Europe and potentially more restrictions.

President Biden has correctly billed his plan an “American Rescue Plan,” rather than as a “recovery” or “stimulus” program.

Stocks are lower Wednesday, as investors focus on a stream of earnings reports from technology companies and awaited the outcome of the Federal Reserve's first policy meeting of 2021.

The "Doomsday Clock" stands at 100 seconds to midnight, a panel of scientists and security experts said Wednesday, matching the level of risk assigned last year when the globe saw its first signs that a devastating pandemic was taking shape. The mutating disease remains a key point of worry to these risk-watchers.

President Biden plans to sign more immigration-related executive actions reversing his predecessor’s policies on asylum seekers and refugees in the coming days, according to people familiar with the plans.

European stocks struggled on Wednesday, as investors look to the Federal Reserve meeting later, coronavirus updates and a batch of big U.S. earnings.

Reddit's WallStreetBets is really the same old story --- a concerted effort of market manipulators who will get rich and surely destroy some unwitting participants in the process.