Wall Street opens flat ahead of Trump conference

(Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite index opened flat on Wednesday, ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's first formal news conference, where he is expected to give more insight into his plans to boost economic growth.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 20.7 points, or 0.1 percent, at 19,876.23, helped by gains in Merck.

The S&P 500 was down 0.21 points, or 0.009256 percent, at 2,268.69 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 2.02 points, or 0.04 percent, at 5,553.84.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)