NEW YORK, April 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks ended mixed on Wednesday as Morgan Stanley joined many big banks reporting strong quarterly earnings result while IBM and oil prices pushing down the Dow Jones industrial average.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average erased 119.47 points, or 0.58 percent, to 20,403.81. The S&P 500 lost 4.02 points, or 0.17 percent, to 2,338.17. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 13.56 points, or 0.23 percent, to 5,863.03.
Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said on Wednesday that U.S. policy normalization is likely to be gradual, media reported. He said that spillovers from tightening "will be manageable."
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 per share, down 11 percent year-to-year.
Meanwhile, energy stocks took a hit as crude oil prices slumped.
The West Texas Intermediate for May delivery decreased 1.97 U.S. dollars to settle at 50.44 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for June delivery lost 1.96 dollars to close at 52.93 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Enditem
