NEW YORK, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded higher in the morning session while investors awaited the latest Fed minutes to be released later on Wednesday.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 4.98 points, or 0.02 percent, to 22,835.66. The S&P 500 was up 0.15 point, or 0.01 percent, to 2,550.79. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 5.22 points, or 0.08 percent, to 6,592.47.
The U.S. central bank kept interest rates unchanged at its September meeting, but said it would start to unwind its 4.5-trillion-U.S. dollar balance sheet this month.
In corporate news, BlackRock and Delta Air Lines both reported quarterly results that beat expectations.
BlackRock reported third quarter earnings per diluted share of 5.78 dollars, up 10 percent on a year-over-year basis. Shares of Blackrock increased 0.65 percent to trade at 468.51 dollars apiece in intraday trading.
Delta Air Lines said its quarterly adjusted earnings per diluted share was 1.57 dollars.
Other major companies scheduled to report quarterly results this week include Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.
Third quarter earnings are expected to increase 4.9 percent on a year-over-year basis, according to data from Thomson Reuters. Third quarter revenues are expected to increase 4.3 percent from the third quarter last year. Enditem
