NEW YORK (AP) — An early rally in stock prices lost steam by Wednesday afternoon following as crude oil prices gave up much of their gains. Yum Brands plunged after cutting its profit forecast for the year, citing weakness in China.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average was up 75 points, or 0.5 percent, to 16,865 as of 1:45 p.m. Eastern time. It was up 173 points in early trading and briefly turned negative at midday. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 11 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,991 and the Nasdaq composite rose 29 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,777.

FOLLOWING CRUDE: Oil prices gave up much of an early gain after the Energy Department reported that U.S. oil inventories rose by 3.1 million barrels last week and demand for oil fell slightly. Oil had rallied earlier on signs that producers were cutting back production.

Benchmark U.S. oil was up 14 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $48.68 a barrel in New York. It had been up 2 percent earlier. Brent Crude, which is used to price international oils, climbed 23 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $52.67 a barrel in London.

GROWTH DOWNGRADE: Another concern lingering on investors' minds is whether the global economy is experiencing a downturn. Those fears were stoked by a report from the IMF that China's slowdown and tumbling commodity prices will push global economic growth this year to the lowest level since the 2009 recession.

The fund forecasts that the world economy will grow 3.1 percent this year, down from its July forecast of 3.3 percent and also below the growth rate of 3.4 percent last year. The IMF expects Chinese economic growth to drop to a 25-year low of 6.8 percent this year, unchanged from its July forecast.

RUNNING AROUND LIKE A ... : KFC parent company YUM Brands sank $15.70, or 19 percent, to $67.66 after the restaurant chain operator's profits and sales missed analysts' expectations. Sales in China, a major market for KFC, rose only 2 percent, far less than expected.

UGLY PROFIT PICTURE: Adobe Systems, maker of Photoshop and other graphics software, fell $5.77, or 7 percent, to $79.37 after the company's cut its full-year profit forecast.

BONDS, CURRENCIES: Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.06 percent. Currency trading was subdued. The euro edged down to $1.1249 and the dollar slipped to 119.98 yen.