Nov 3 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks moved modestly higher on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it will begin trimming its monthly bond purchases in November with plans to end them in 2022.

The benchmark S&P 500 advanced into positive territory after the U.S. central bank announced plans to begin tapering its bond purchases, a decision that investors had widely been anticipating.

The Fed also held to its belief that high inflation would prove “transitory” and likely not require a fast rise in interest rates. read more

In afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 73.13 points, or 0.2%, to 35,979.5, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 4.42 points, or 0.10%, to 4,635.07 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 52.77 points, or 0.34%, to 15,702.37.

Additional eporting by Devik Jain and Shashank Nayar in Bengaluru; Editing by Marguerita Choy

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