US benchmark equity indexes ended mixed Wednesday ahead of Nvidia's (NVDA) quarterly earnings.

* Nvidia will report after the bell, with investors seeking continued validation of the so-called artificial intelligence trade from their poster child.

* The so-called Magnificent-7 stocks -- of which Nvidia is one -- were in technical correction territory on Tuesday, having shed more than 10% since scaling their peak in December, according to a note from Deutsche Bank. "So that's heightening the focus on Nvidia's earnings."

* US new-home sales fell to a 657,000 annual rate in January from an upwardly revised 734,000 rate in December, below the 680,000 rate expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg. Home sales were down 1.1% from January 2024.

* "Risks to new-home sales and residential investment more broadly are weighted to the downside this year because of high mortgage rates, the potential for tariffs on imported building materials from Canada and Mexico along with potential labor supply issues stemming from the Trump administration's immigration policies," Ryan Sweet, Chief US Economist at Oxford Economics, said in a note, adding the data are "volatile and subject to large revisions."

* April West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed down $0.12 to settle at $68.81 per barrel, while April Brent crude, the global benchmark, was last seen down $0.30 to $72.72 as the prospect of rising supply offsets a report showing a surprise drop in US inventories last week.

* Axon Enterprise (AXON) reported Q4 non-GAAP earnings and net sales late Tuesday above average analyst estimates compiled by FactSet. Its shares jumped almost 15%.

* AppLovin (APP) sank 12% after short sellers Fuzzy Panda Research and Culper Research released two separate allegations about the company.