NEW YORK, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded mixed on Thursday, as Wall Street digested the newly-released announcement about tax reform and awaited the appointment of next U.S. Federal Reserve Chair.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 32.42 points, or 0.14 percent, to 23,467.43. The S&P 500 ticked down 3.07 points, or 0.12 percent, to 2,576.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 13.74 points, or 0.20 percent, to 6,702.79.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday unveiled the long-awaited bill to overhaul the U.S. tax code in decades by significantly cutting individual and corporate income taxes.
Meanwhile, investors also awaited President Donald Trump's appointment of next Fed Chair.
The Fed on Wednesday left its benchmark interest rates unchanged, as was widely expected.
The U.S. labor market "has continued to strengthen" and economic activity "has been rising at a solid rate" despite hurricane-related disruptions, the Fed's policy-making committee said in a statement released after its two-day meeting.
The central bank, however, did leave the door open for a December rate hike. Expectations for a December rate hike are 98.2 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
On the economic front, in the week ending October 28, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 229,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised level, according to the U.S. Labor Department Thursday.
In corporate news, tech giant Facebook posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings after Wednesday's closing bell.
Apple and Starbucks, among others, are set to report their financial results later Thursday.
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
