REFILE-US STOCKS-Wall Street holds gains, trade choppy as Fed keeps rates steady

(Corrects typographical error in headline)

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Federal Reserve keeps rates unchanged

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US Treasury increases size of most debt auctions

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Private payrolls rise less than expected in October

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CVS, Estee Lauder slump on dour forecasts

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Indexes up: Dow 0.32%, S&P 0.50%, Nasdaq 0.75%

By Sinéad Carew and Amruta Khandekar

Nov 1 (Reuters) -

The S&P 500 roughly held its gains on Wednesday although trading was choppy as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell began his press conference after the U.S. central bank kept interest rates unchanged, as expected, while acknowledging the economy's strength.

The Fed held rates steady but left the door open to a further increases in a policy statement that pointed to the U.S. economy's surprising strength, but nodded to tighter financial conditions faced by businesses and consumers.

"The Fed left rates unchanged, as expected and made some minor adjustments to the statement, but nothing dramatic," said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance, Charlotte, NC noting that investors would closely monitor Powell's press conference, which kicked off at 2:30 p.m EDT (1830 GMT)

"Investors will be listening very closely to Powell's words. People will be trying to parse it. Is the bias toward tightening or is the bias toward easing? I think everyone's going to try to slice and dice his words to try to figure out is the next meeting a live meeting," said Zaccarelli.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 105.95 points, or 0.32%, to 33,158.82, the S&P 500 gained 20.88 points, or 0.50%, to 4,214.68 and the Nasdaq Composite added 96.25 points, or 0.75%, to 12,947.48.

Ellen Hazen, chief market strategist at F.L.Putnam Investment Management in Wellesley, Massachusetts said it was "hard to say if we are at the end of hikes."

"The Fed very much wants to keep the door open for additional hikes in December or next year. They did make a few changes to the wording, two of which reflect the assessment that the economy is actually stronger than it was at the last statement," said Hazen, also noting that the Fed changed its reference to job gains from "slowed" to "moderated."

"Both of those are on the positive side," Hazen said.

Earlier the stock market got a boost from falling bond yields after the U.S. Treasury Department said it will slow the pace of increases in its longer-dated debt auctions in the November-January quarter and expects it will need one more additional quarter of increases after this to meet its financing needs.

Earnings has been a mixed bag for stocks even though 79.7% of the 310 S&P 500 companies that had reported at the time of LSEG's latest update, had beat analyst expectations for the quarter while only 16.1% had fallen short of estimates.

Still investors were disappointed by many quarterly updates.

CVS Health beat estimates for quarterly profit, though its shares fell as medical costs at its health insurance business were high.

Estee Lauder shares tumbled after the beauty products maker cut its annual profit outlook. And shares in Payroll processor Paycom Software sank after it projected for downbeat fourth-quarter revenue.

Tinder owner Match Group fell after it also forecast fourth-quarter revenue below estimates.

(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Dhanya Ann Thoppil, Maju Samuel and David Gregorio)