US equities fail to hold on to gains Shares in Yahoo rose in early trading on Wednesday after posting better than expected first-quarter results, as US markets failed to hold on to gains made the day before. The S&P 500 declined 0.3 per cent to 1,386.01. On Tuesday, the benchmark US index rose 1.6 per cent on stronger than forecast bank earnings and news of a successful bond auction in Spain that temporarily settled fears about the eurozone debt crisis. Yahoo, the internet search and media company, reported first-quarter revenues of $1.08bn - up one per cent from the same period last year - and earnings of 23 cents a share. Both numbers came in slightly higher than analyst predictions. Scott Thompson, chief executive, said that Yahoo would revamp its strategy in order to better compete with rivals, including Facebook. Earlier this month, the company unveiled its most sweeping round of jobs cuts in its 18-year history, saying it would lay off 2,000 employees. Yahoo shares rose 3 per cent to $15.46. Apple shares bucked the overall market trend to build on its gains from Tuesday. Apple was 1.6 per cent higher at $619.51. Also on Tuesday, Warren Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, revealed that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer last week. Mr Buffett assured shareholders in Berkshire that the cancer was "not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful." Nonetheless, B class shares in the company declined nearly 1 per cent to $80 on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average moved 0.5 per cent lower to 13,046.78. Shares in Genworth Financial , the life insurer and mortgage guarantor, plummeted more than 15 per cent to $6.48 after it postponed a planned initial public offering of its Australian home loans unit. The offering, which was scheduled to take place in the second quarter of 2012, has been delayed until the start of next year as the company reported significant losses in its business there. Halliburton , the oil services group, saw it shares rise 2.8 per cent to $33.58 after reporting first-quarter revenues rose 30 per cent to $6.9bn, from the same period last year. The company said in its report that it would set aside $300m to cover the expected costs to the company of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Earnings per share were 46 per cent higher at 89 cents, excluding the cost of the disaster.