Nasdaq dips as Facebook, Tesla fall; S&P, Dow flat

By Sruthi Shankar and Tanya Agrawal

(Reuters) - The Nasdaq slipped in early morning trading on Thursday, pulled down by declines in Facebook and Tesla, while the S&P and the Dow were little changed ahead of an announcement of a long-awaited tax bill and decision on the next Federal Reserve chair.

Facebook fell 1.4 percent after the company said it expected expenses to jump between 45 percent and 60 percent next year.

Tesla dipped 6.24 percent after the electric car maker pushed back its target for volume production on its new Model 3 sedan by about three months, and reported its biggest quarterly loss ever.

Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower, led by losses in discretionary and technology stocks.

After a one-day postponement, Republicans have made plans for a measure that will seek up to $6 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years but will likely not spell out completely how to offset them. A spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan said the tax bill would be made public at 11:15 a.m. ET (1515 GMT).

Trump is widely expected to nominate Fed Governor Jerome Powell from a list that includes current Fed Chair Janet Yellen, Stanford University economist John Taylor, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn.

Powell has broadly supported Yellen's monetary policy, and in recent years has shared her concern that low inflation justified continuing with a cautious approach to raising interest rates.

"I think a lot of it is priced in that Powell will be the choice. It's the worst kept secret and it was done to not upset the market," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

Trump will announce his choice at 3:00 p.m. ET (1900 GMT) at the White House, according to his public schedule.

The Fed on Wednesday kept interest rates unchanged but gave encouraging comments about the economy, signaling it was on track to lift borrowing costs again in December.

At 9:39 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 4.14 points, or 0.02 percent, at 23,439.15 and the S&P 500 was down 1.34 points, or 0.05 percent, at 2,578.02.The

Nasdaq Composite was down 15.94 points, or 0.24 percent, at 6,700.60.

Newell Brands plunged more than 21 percent after the Sharpie maker cut its full-year profit forecast and reported results below expectations.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,278 to 1,235. On the Nasdaq, 1,304 issues fell and 994 advanced.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)