Wall Street was mixed on Wednesday amid downbeat earnings releases and as investors waited for news of trade talks between the U.S. and China.
The S&P 500 fell half a point, or 0.02%, as of 9:44 AM ET (14:44 GMT), while the Dow gained 1 point, or 0.01%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite increased 10 points, or 0.14%.
A fresh round of talks began on Tuesday in Washington, with higher-level discussions scheduled for later this week. U.S. President Donald Trump repeated Tuesday that he would consider extending the March 1 deadline, when tariffs on about $200 billion worth of Chinese imports are set to rise to 25% from the current 10% if a deal is not reached.
"A market-friendly outcome this week will be for both sides to agree on extending the March 1 deadline, which should provide more time for finding a middle ground on trade policy," FXTM analyst Lukman Otunuga wrote in a client note. "Trump stating that the talks are 'very complex' and the current March deadline is not a 'magical date', (means) a breakthrough deal is still some distance away."
US Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW) was among the top gainers after the morning bell, rising 3%, while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) gained 0.75% and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) increased 1.15%.
CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) slumped 8.9% after it missed its full-year profit forecast, while Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) dipped 4.6% after it cuts its first-quarter forecast for revenue per seat mile amid weak passenger demand.
LendingClub (NYSE:LC) fell 10.8% after the online lender said it expected a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss due to economic uncertainty.
On the central banking front, the Federal Reserve will release the minutes from its Jan. 30 policy meeting at 2:00 PM ET (19:00 GMT) Wednesday. Investors will pore over the minutes for further details on the bank’s pause in rate hikes.
In commodities, Gold futures rose 0.17% to $1,347.15 a troy ounce, while crude oil fell 0.39% to $56.23 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, inched up 0.10% to 96.44.
