Last updated November 4, 2009: 4:30 PM ET --- The major U.S. equity indices closed mixed Wednesday as financial and energy shares went down in the closing minutes and investors digested the outlook for equities after the FOMC announced its latest policy statement. The Federal Reserve kept its key rate target near zero, inline with expectations. The central bank's policy statement contained no major changes from the one issued in September but the Fed reduced the amount of agency debt that it plans to purchase to $175 billion from $200 billion. The ISM's non-manufacturing index moved to 50.6 in October, down from 50.9 in September, missing economists expectations of a rise to 52.0. Although the report missed expectations, investors were still encouraged by the measure because it was over 50, which is a level that indicates growth and describes the breadth of the expansion. New orders and prices indices both showed growth from September. Automatic Data Processing and Macroeconomic Advisors reported a 203,000 drop in private-sector jobs last month, which was inline with economists' expectations and smaller than September's decline. In corporate news, Merck (NYSE:MRK) shares rose 7% after announced that it expects annual earnings growth in the high single digits on a percentage basis until 2013. Disney (NYSE:DIS) shares rose 2.2% after getting approval from China to pursue plans to build a theme park in Shanghai. Kraft (NYSE:KFT) shares dropped 3% after lowering its sales outlook. Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) reported fiscal Q1 EPS of 36 cents, topping consensus estimates of 31 cents. Net sales in the quarter fell 12.7% year-over-year to $9.02 billion, and came in short of consensus estimates of $8.74 billion. News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) reported fiscal Q1 EPS of 22 cents, ahead of the consensus estimates of 18 cents per share. Revenues fell 4% year-over-year to $7.20 billion, beating the consensus estimates of $7.16 billions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.31% higher at 9,802.14, the S&P500 was up 0.10% at 1,046.50, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.09% to 2,055.52.

Write to Chip Brian at cbrian@tradethetrend.com

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