Energy gains offset trouble in tech stocks

U.S. stocks edged higher, led by energy-related companies, as equity markets shrugged off weakness in technology and threats of global trade barriers. Government bond yields increased as investors braced for higher U.S. borrowing rates.

Crude advanced to a three-week high as the OPEC-led alliance of major oil producers accelerated the time line for curbing a worldwide supply glut, helping to lift the shares of companies such as Hess Corp. and Marathon Petroleum Corp. Facebook Inc.’s mounting Cambridge Analytica data crisis continued to weigh on tech and draw the ire of politicians on both sides of the Atlantic.

“Things have certainly gotten more volatile,” said Gary Bradshaw, a portfolio manager at Hodges Capital Management in Dallas. “The Fed, that’s going to be the news tomorrow. Everybody is expecting a rate increase, and then of course the big selloff in tech.”

Investors are struggling to rediscover their bullishness in the wake of this week’s tech setbacks and with the Federal Reserve rate decision a day away.

Finance ministers from the world’s largest economies struggled to block President Donald Trump’s push to erect trade barriers that many warned threaten to undermine the broadest global expansion since 2010. Policy makers from the Group of 20 finished talks in Buenos Aires Tuesday with little to show for their efforts to convince U.S. to pare back protectionist steps, including new metal tariffs.

Elsewhere, the U.K. currency gave up its gains after data showed the nation’s inflation rate fell more than expected in February. Russia’s ruble steadied after six days of losses.