Wall Street holds near steady after Fed statement

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks held to nearly flat levels on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced another cut in its massive bond-buying program, as expected.

The Fed said in a statement that it would reduce its monthly bond purchases to $45 billion from $55 billion, a widely expected decision that keeps it on track to end the program as soon as October.

That the Fed looked past a dismal reading on first-quarter U.S. economic growth suggested confidence in the economy's prospects, however.

"No surprise at all. The Fed already said it expected some weakness because of weather, but it is also seeing growth pick up and consumer spending rising. Steady as she goes," said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at Rockwell Securities in New York.

EBay remained the biggest negative influence on both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. Its shares fell 4.7 percent to $51.95, a day after it forecast lower-than-expected earnings this quarter.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 31.18 points or 0.19 percent, to 16,566.55, the S&P 500 gained 3.09 points or 0.16 percent, to 1,881.42 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.129 points or 0.05 percent, to 4,101.414.

Earlier, data showed gross domestic product expanded at a 0.1 percent annual rate in the first quarter, the slowest since the fourth quarter of 2012, as exports and inventories weighed, but activity already appears to be bouncing back.

Twitter shares fell 10.1 percent to $38.28 and hit a record low intraday level at $37.25, a day after it posted lackluster user and usage growth for the second consecutive quarter.

(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)