NEW YORK, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks erased early gains on Wednesday, the first trading day of the month, as Wall Street awaited a monetary policy decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve and a batch of corporate earnings.
By noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 40.60 points, or 0.17 percent, to 23,417.84. The S&P 500 rose 4.03 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2,579.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index inched down 9.28 points, or 0.14 percent, to 6,718.39.
The U.S. central bank is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged Wednesday, but investors will look to any change in the statement for hints on a next interest rate hike.
"The FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) could underscore its intention to tighten in December, but there's no need given futures already showing a two-thirds chance," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, on Wednesday.
On the economic front, U.S. private sector employment increased by 235,000 jobs from September to October, beating market estimates, said the October ADP National Employment Report on Wednesday.
The ADP report is often seen as a preview for the closely-watched U.S. nonfarm payrolls data due out on Friday.
After Wednesday's closing bell, Facebook, Tesla and Kraft Heinz are scheduled to release their financial results.
Meanwhile, tech giant Apple and Starbucks, among others, are also set to report later this week.
The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the third quarter of 2017 are expected to rise 7.0 percent year on year, while the revenues are forecast to increase 5.1 percent. Enditem
