Wall St little changed; oil prices' fall from 2015 highs on energy shares

US stocks were little changed in morning trading on Wednesday, with gains in healthcare and technology stocks helping offset losses in energy shares.

Oil prices fell after hitting a nearly two-and-a-half year high in the previous session, pressuring the S&P energy index, which fell 0.1 per cent.

ConocoPhillips dropped 1.2 per cent and Chevron fell 0.3 per cent.

Technology shares, including those of Facebook and Nvidia, gained ground on Wednesday. The sector was dragged down on Tuesday by losses in Apple's shares following a report on tepid iPhone X demand.

Trading activity was muted in the holiday-shortened week between Christmas and New Year.

Commodity prices were in the spotlight after copper prices hit three-and-a-half-year highs after a rise in China's imports in November.

"People are using copper and oil prices as a precursor to signal that the US economy is strengthening," said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist at SlateStone Wealth in New York.

At 9:38 a.m. ET (1438 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 5.36 points, or 0.02 percent, at 24,751.57 and the S&P 500 was up 1.61 points, or 0.06 per cent, at 2,682.11.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 4.69 points, or 0.07 per cent, at 6,940.94.

Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer rose about half a per cent each, lifting the S&P healthcare sector by 0.22 per cent.

Tesla shares fell 0.75 per cent after brokerage KeyBanc lowered its estimates for Model 3 deliveries to roughly 5,000 units from 15,000 units for the fourth quarter.

Shares of wireless-charging technology developer Energous Corp soared about 85 per cent after it got certification for its wireless charging transmitter.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,341 to 1,137. On the Nasdaq, 1,345 issues rose and 953 fell.