The Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) all opened on Wednesday in the red after the Nasdaq hit a record high of 17,000 on Tuesday. The oil industry is seeing a consolidation push as Hess (HES) shareholders approved a $53 billion merger with Chevron (CVX) and ConocoPhillips (COP) is set to acquire Marathon Oil (MRO) in a $17.1 billion all-stock deal. With the AI race heating up, investors will be watching for earnings from Salesforce (CRM) and HP (HPQ) later in the day. Other trending tickers on Yahoo Finance include Chewy (CHWY), American Airlines (AAL), and Netflix (NFLX).

Key guests include:
3:20 p.m. ET - Fran Horowitz, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. CEO
4:00 p.m. ET - Amy Wu Silverman, RBC Capital Markets Equity Derivatives Strategist
4:30 p.m. ET - Enrique Lores, HP, Inc. CEO