US stocks were mostly higher early Wednesday ahead of a Federal Reserve policy statement as microblogging company Twitter and online listings site Yelp plunged on disappointing outlooks.
About 30 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17,662.97, up 32.70 points (0.19 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 added 3.62 (0.17 percent) at 2,096.87, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.88 (0.02 percent) to 5,088.33.
The Fed statement, to be released at 1800 GMT, is not expected to include any major shifts but could give clues on when the US central bank expects to hike interest rates, expected later in 2015.
Twitter sank 14.2 percent as executives warned of slow user growth, while Yelp dived 29.2 percent after projecting third-quarter revenues of $139-$142 million, well below analyst expectations of $152.6 million.
Dow member Procter & Gamble advanced 0.5 percent as it announced that David Taylor, who heads the company`s beauty, grooming and health care business, will become the next chief executive November 1, succeeding A.G. Lafley.
Gilead Sciences jumped 4.3 percent after reporting that second-quarter earnings rose 22.9 percent to $4.5 billion due in part to large gains in antiviral product sales.
Mastercard fell 0.9 percent as second-quarter revenues of $2.39 billion fell shy of the analyst forecast of $2.41 billion. The credit-card company cited the drag from the strong dollar.
Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit management company, rose 0.7 percent as it lifted its 2015 earnings forecast from $5.37-$5.47 per share to $5.46-$5.54.
Chain restaurant Buffalo Wild Wings bolted 10.5 percent higher on news that same-store sales rose 4.2 percent in the second quarter at company-owned restaurants and 2.5 percent at franchised restaurants. Earnings fell 9.3 percent to $21.5 million due to higher labor costs and elevated chicken prices.
Aerospace and defense company General Dynamics rose 6.1 percent after reporting a 39 percent increase in second-quarter earnings to $752 million.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.28 percent from 2.25 percent, while the 30-year advanced to 2.98 percent from 2.97 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
