01:45 PM EDT, 08/12/2026 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with index/price moves, macroeconomic data and company/geopolitical news from the first paragraph.)

US equity indexes traded mixed as a drop in July's inflation rate to a four-month low increased the odds of another Federal Reserve policy pause while Iran's top military appointments signaled preparations for an offensive in a prolonged war.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4% to 26,546.1 and the S&P 500 climbed 0.2% to 7,742.5 after midday Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was steady at 53,824.6. Consumer discretionary and communication services led decliners.

Super Micro Computer's ( SMCI ) shares surged past 18%, the top gainer on the S&P 500, after the company released an upbeat fiscal 2027 revenue outlook.

CoreWeave ( CRWV ) reported a Q2 beat and raised guidance, with inference demand driving upside despite higher near-term capital expenditures, Oppenheimer said in a note Wednesday. Its shares soared 19%, one of the top performers on the Nasdaq.

Sandisk ( SNDK ) and Kioxia said Wednesday they unveiled a new 9th-generation, high-performance flash memory technology designed to support the growing storage demands of AI infrastructure. Shares of Sandisk ( SNDK ) jumped 8%, one of the biggest gainers on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

The consumer price index rose 3.4% in July from a year earlier, decelerating from 3.5% in June and marking the slowest pace of growth since March, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed. The annual print matched the average forecast in a Bloomberg-compiled survey. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy items, eased to 2.5%, also as expected, from June's 2.6%.

On a month-on-month basis, consumer prices rose 0.1% in July following a 0.4% drop the month prior. Core prices rose 0.2% after holding steady in June. Both readings were in line with market projections.

"Despite the rebound in monthly measures, underlying inflation trends continue to move in the right direction," Thomas Feltmate, senior economist at TD Economics, said in a report. "At 3.4%, headline CPI has put further distance from its four-year high reached in May, while the annual change on core inflation fell back to its pre-Iran conflict rate of growth."

The probability of the Federal Reserve extending its policy pause to the sixth meeting in September jumped to 60% on Wednesday, up from 52% a day ago and 46% a week earlier, according to the Fedwatch tool.

US Treasury yields fell, with the 10-year yield down 1.4 basis points to 4.67% and the two-year lower by 3.2 basis points to 4.19%.

Gold futures rose 0.6% to $4,468.20, and silver futures jumped 1.1% to $65.68.

Meanwhile, Iran could "prolong" its war with the US until President Donald Trump leaves office, CNN reported, citing a top adviser to the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

This comes as Tehran reorganized its military to be more aggressive abroad, Bloomberg reported. A raft of top military appointments by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei marks a shift to an "offensive doctrine," Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who advises the force's new commander, told state TV late Tuesday, according to the news agency.

President Donald Trump has claimed the US still has control over the strait while Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Middle East oil exports rose above pre-war levels on Sunday, CNN reported

The front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil contract shed 0.4% to $82.86 per barrel, and global benchmark North Sea Brent was 0.5% lower at $88.46 per barrel.