NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks were little changed early Thursday ahead of Apple earnings and the expected nomination of Jerome Powell as the next head of the Federal Reserve.
Apple, the last of the tech giants to report results this quarter, was down 0.3 percent as analysts awaited updates on the sales of the latest iPhones and upgraded Apple Watch.
The White House notified current Fed Governor Powell on Wednesday that he will be the nominee, replacing current Fed Chair Janet Yellen, according to a congressional source and US media.
Analysts do not expect Powell to significantly accelerate the moderate pace of interest rate increases under Yellen leadership.
Other developments on the news-packed day included the release of the Republican tax cut plan in Congress and the Bank of England’s first interest rate hike in 10 years
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up a hair at 23,436.87.
The broad-based S&P 500 dipped 0.1 percent to 2,577.36, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.2 percent to 6,704.57.
Facebook dropped 1.3 percent as it warned that it would need to boost spending to safeguard its network following widespread abuses and misinformation in the 2016 US elections. Earnings in the third quarter shot up 79 percent to $4.7 billion.
Tesla Motors dropped 4.1 percent after it signaled it would miss a year-end target to produce 5,000 Model 3 cars a week. The electric-car maker reported a quarterly loss of $619 million, its largest deficit ever.
Source: Brecorder.com
