NEW YORK, April 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded mixed on Wednesday, as Morgan Stanley joined many big banks reporting strong quarterly earnings results but IBM dragged the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower.
By noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked down 12.43 points, or 0.06 percent, to 20,510.85. The S&P 500 rose 7.27 points, or 0.31 percent, to 2,349.46. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 40.85 points, or 0.70 percent, to 5,890.32.
Shares of Morgan Stanley rallied 2.81 percent around midday Wednesday, after it reported better-than-expected first-quarter results.
The investment bank posted net revenues of 9.7 billion U.S. dollars for the first quarter of 2017, compared with 7.8 billion a year ago. For the current quarter, net income was 1.9 billion dollars, or one dollar per diluted share.
Shares of IBM dropped nearly 5 percent in the early trading Wednesday, after the tech giant posted weak quarterly sales.
IBM announced after Monday's closing bell first-quarter 2017 diluted earnings from continuing operations of 1.85 dollars per share, down 11 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, investors also awaited U.S. Federal Reserve's Beige Book, which is scheduled to be released later Wednesday. Enditem
