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(Reuters) – U.S. stocks were mostly higher on Wednesday in afternoon trading, led by gains in the Nasdaq and shares of big growth names including Amazon.com and Microsoft.
The S&P 500 briefly added to gains following the release of minutes from the September Federal Reserve policy meeting.
The minutes showed U.S. central bankers signaled they could start reducing crisis-era support for the economy in mid-November, though they remained divided over how much of a threat high inflation poses and how soon they may need to raise interest rates.
Earlier, a Labor Department report showed consumer prices increased solidly in September, further strengthening the case for a Fed interest-rate hike.
JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) fell 2.7% and was among the biggest drags on the Dow and S&P 500 even though its third-quarter earnings beat expectations, helped by global dealmaking boom and release of more loan loss reserves.
“The market is in a show-me phase” with earnings, said Jim Awad, senior managing director at Clearstead Advisors LLC in New York.
“My hope is that stronger-looking guidance” will help to support prices, he said.
Mega-caps growth names including Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) all rose.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 54.74 points, or 0.16%, to 34,323.6, the S&P 500 gained 4.56 points, or 0.10%, to 4,355.21 and the Nasdaq Composite added 69.98 points, or 0.48%, to 14,535.90.
BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK) rose 3.7% after the world’s largest money manager beat quarterly profit estimates as an improving economy helped boost its assets under management, driving up fee income.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Citigroup (NYSE:C), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) will report results on Thursday, while Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) will publish earnings on Friday.
Analysts expect corporate America to report strong profit growth in the third quarter at a time when worries about supply chain problems and higher prices are affecting businesses emerging from the pandemic.
Among other stocks, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell 0.8% after a report said the iPhone marker was planning to cut production of its iPhone 13.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.50-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.17-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 6 new 52-week highs and 8 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 46 new highs and 50 new lows.
