Midday Report: Qualcomm Jumps on Xiaomi Deal; Oil Prices Drop

Trading was choppy at midday trading Wednesday as investors awaited Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's noon speech and the central bank's Beige Book out this afternoon. Tech companies lifted the Nasdaq with Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX) and Alphabet (GOOGL) shares each hitting intraday records. A rally in Qualcomm (QCOM) shares helped to boost tech after the wireless tech developer granted a patent license deal to Xiaomi. Yahoo! (YHOO) climbed as its board prepares to meet this week to discuss selling several of the company's core internet businesses. The board will also discuss whether to proceed with a spinoff of its Alibaba (BABA) stake. Oil prices tumbled after the latest weekly data on domestic inventories showed an increase of 1.2 million barrels.