Mixed opening for Wall Street as eyes turn to Congress

NEW YORK: Major Wall Street indices had a subdued opening to Wednesday's trading, with investors watching progress in Congress on the passage of President Joe Biden's massive spending plans.

The president has proposed two bills that would spend nearly $5 trillion over the coming decade across the economy to overhaul the nation's infrastructure, expand an array of social services and fight climate change.

While a final vote is not expected until later in the fall, the House of Representatives on Tuesday cleared the way for the infrastructure package to be approved late next month

Also on the agenda is Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole conference on Friday, where he could elaborate further on the central bank's policy plans as the US economy recovers.

US stocks post hesitant gains at open

About 20 minutes into trading, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.1 percent to 35,323.79.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent to 4,488.33 and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.2 percent to 15,042.56, after both closed at records on Tuesday.

"I think we could see a third day of rising stock prices," Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities told AFP.

Before markets opened, the Commerce Department reported orders for big-ticket manufactured goods fell slightly in July, though rising spending in the defense sector kept them from a bigger drop.