Oil futures fell on Wednesday after US crude oil inventories rose unexpectedly last week and gasoline stockpiles surged.

West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) ended the session down more than 1% to settle at $71.37 per barrel. Brent (BZ=F) futures closed more than 1% lower at $76.80 per barrel.

Futures fell after a surprise build of 1.34 million barrels of crude oil versus expectations for a draw, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration. Gasoline inventories rose by more than 8 million barrels versus estimates for gains of more than 2 million barrels.

Winter is a seasonally slow season for gasoline as snowstorms and cold weather impact driving habits. However, the surge in inventories appear to be outsized, equaling the largest two-week build since 2016.

"Gasoline prices will come under pressure," Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday. "On the other hand, we are just starting with the refinery maintenance season which will reduce supply."

The national average for retail gasoline was at $3.08 per gallon on Wednesday, down from $3.28 a year ago, according to AAA data.

According to a spokesperson from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, the agency "is coordinating with appropriate law enforcement entities, including the SEC's Office of the Inspector General and the FBI" on its investigation of the fake post on X sent Tuesday that prompted chaos in crypto markets.

Tuesday's message suggested the SEC had approved trading in spot bitcoin ETFs, a decision most expect to come down later on Wednesday.

The spokesperson added, "The unauthorized content on the @SECGov account was not drafted or created by the SEC," and said any news from the agency would first appear on its website.

The mishap has attracted new scrutiny to the SEC, which was forced late Tuesday to say that its government account on X, formerly known as Twitter, had been hacked.

Ahead of Wednesday's expected decision, bitcoin was trading near $46,300.

Alaska Air (ALK) stock hit a session low on Wednesday after the carrier cancelled all flights involving Boeing's (BA) 737 MAX 9 jets through Jan. 13.

Shares were down more than 1.5% following a statement in which the airline said it is still waiting for documentation from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to begin inspection of its 737-9 MAX fleet.

The FAA ordered a temporary grounding of the aircraft after a door "plug" flew off an Alaska Airlines plane in midair on Friday.

This week the FAA said Boeing's instructions to airlines on how to inspect the planes were inadequate.

Alaska Airlines said the announced cancellations would equate to between 110 and 150 flights per day.

Amazon (AMZN) shares were up more than 1% on Wednesday after the tech giant announced layoffs within its Prime Video and Studios units.

Mike Hopkins, senior vice president at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said in a memo to employees reviewed by Reuters that company had "identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact."

Meanwhile job cuts at Twitch, Amazon’s video game streaming service, were announced via a blog post on Wednesday.

"As you all know, we have worked hard over the last year to run our business as sustainably as possible," wrote Twitch chief executive officer Dan Clancy.

"Unfortunately, we still have work to do to rightsize our company and I regret having to share that we are taking the painful step to reduce our headcount by just over 500 people at Twitch."

Oil prices erased earlier gains on Wednesday after a surprise US crude inventory build.

West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) fell more than 1% while Brent (BZ=F) futures declined by roughly the same amount to trade below $77 per barrel.

The downward action came after the latest Energy Information Administration data showed a surprise crude build of 1.34 million barrels last week, versus expectations for a decrease in stockpiles. Gasoline inventories also rose to their highest level in a year.

"I have always been in the camp that fuel supplies eventually set crude prices and with the latest builds in fuel supplies the upside in crude is limited, unless of course we see further tensions in the Middle East," Dennis Kissler, senior vice president at BOK Financial, said on Wednesday.

Earlier in the session futures gained more than 1% amid escalating attacks by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.

Stocks were in the green around 12:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) popped about 0.1% while the benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) was up about 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose about 0.4%.

Big Tech led the charge on Wednesday with the majority of the Magnificent Seven stocks well into positive territory.

Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), and Nvidia (NVDA) were all up more than 1%. Meta touched a 52-week high during the session while Nvidia pressed near a new record high with the stock now trading around $545 per share.

Some money managers expect to get the green light as early as this afternoon to launch spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds despite the chaos triggered Tuesday by a fake social media post claiming those approvals had already been granted.

As Yahoo Finance's David Hollerith and Jennifer Schonberger report, the mishap attracted new scrutiny to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was forced late Tuesday to say that its government account on X, formerly Twitter, had been hacked and that it had not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin ETFs.

Read more here.

Meta (META) led the Yahoo Finance trending tickers page on Wednesday as shares popped more than 3%, touching a new 52-week high. Mizuho, which has a Buy rating on the stock, boosted its price target to $470 from $400. The firm sees Reels and FB Shops driving more revenue growth than the Street currently expects.

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) stock popped more than 5%. On Tuesday night, the company reported fourth quarter revenue of $1.93 billion, topping Wall Street's estimates for $1.89 billion.

Ethereum (ETH-USD) popped more than 8% on Wednesday with the price hitting more than $2,400 per coin. The move comes as investors await possible approval for a spot bitcoin ETF and speculation builds about the next digital asset to have an ETF.

WD-40 (WDFC) stock soared more than 15% after topping Wall Street's estimates for quarterly results. The company's $1.28 earnings per share for the prior quarter topped analyst expectations of $1.00.

As inflation comes down, the popular I bonds trade from the past few years isn't looking as attractive anymore.

Yahoo Finance's Kerry Hannon reports:

It’s a good time to sell those I bonds you bought when they became fashionable two years ago amid blisteringly hot inflation, which pumped up the annualized rate to 7.12% in November 2021 and a record 9.62% in May 2022.

The lofty annual rate has since settled as inflation’s been tapped down, and the I bonds scooped up during those heady days are paying about a third of those beguiling rates, or 3.97%.

Here’s why. The I bond rate is made up of a fixed rate, which applies for the 30-year life of the bond, and a semiannual variable inflation rate calculated from the six-month change in the Consumer Price Index.

The annualized yield for the latest I bonds is 5.27% — a hefty fixed rate of 1.30%, plus the 3.97% variable rate which will reset again in May.

By contrast, the I bond fixed rate in November 2021 and May 2022 — when inflation was soaring — was 0%. That means those older bonds are now earning the current variable rate, period.

The takeaway? Redeem and reinvest.

“I personally sold my own and am advising clients to do the same,” Danielle Howard, a certified financial planner with Wealth By Design in Glenwood Springs, Colo., told Yahoo Finance. “Depending on individual cash flow considerations, we are looking at money markets, laddered CD's, and corporate bond bullets.”

After a drama-filled Tuesday that saw an unauthorized tweet falsely announce that spot bitcoin (BTC-USD) ETFs had been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, cryptocurrency remains one of the top stories on Wall Street on Wednesday.

Investors are awaiting a highly anticipated decision from the SEC on whether or not it will approve spot bitcoin ETFs.

As Yahoo Finance's David Hollerith reported on Tuesday, three of the ETF applicants have told Yahoo Finance they expect the SEC to approve their applications sometime Wednesday and that trading could begin as early as Thursday based on that timing.

Bitcoin is trading just above $45,000 a coin amid the regulatory back and forth.

US stocks inched higher on Wednesday, with tech reaching for gains as investors waited for fresh inflation data and absorbed a dramatic turn in events in spot bitcoin ETFs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) and benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) were up about 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose about 0.3%, after tech stocks eked out the sole win among the major indexes the previous day.