By Yashaswini Swamynathan
REUTERS - Wall Street was lower on Wednesday as disappointing results from Coca-Cola and weak oil offset gains fueled by Apple, and ahead of the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates.
The Fed is scheduled to issue a statement at 2:00 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) after a two-day policy meeting, which began on Tuesday.
While the central bank is expected to keep rates steady for now, the recent set of strong economic data could strengthen the case for an increase earlier than the market anticipates.
Traders do not expect the Fed to pull the trigger even until June next year, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.
"The Fed clearly will not raise interest rates," said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment strategist at Cornerstone Financial Partners. "But I think you will see a slight move in position where the Fed is going to suggest that they are looking to raise rates at least once this year."
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Dow component Coke's revenue miss and forecast cut sent its stock down 3.5 percent, pulling down the S&P 500 index.
In contrast, Apple shares rose 6.5 percent to $103 after the company sold more iPhones than expected in the third-quarter and gave an upbeat current-quarter forecast.
At 12:55 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 13.77 points, or 0.07 percent, at 18,459.98.
The S&P 500 was down 5.95 points, or 0.27 percent, at 2,163.23.
The Nasdaq Composite index was up 16.32 points, or 0.32 percent, at 5,126.37.
Seven of the 10 major S&P sectors were lower, led by a 1.5 percent drop in the consumer staples index followed by a 1.02 percent decline in energy.
Oil prices tumbled 3 percent after the U.S. government reported a surprise build in crude and gasoline inventories. [O/R]
Twitter's stock plunged 12.4 percent to its lowest in three months after the microblogging service provider reported its slowest quarterly revenue growth since going public in 2013.
Facebook, Amgen and Whole Foods are scheduled to report after the bell on Wednesday.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,720 to 1,182. On the Nasdaq, 1,416 issues rose and 1,350 fell.
The S&P 500 index showed 39 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 99 new highs and 23 new lows.
(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)