NEW YORK, July 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks closed higher on Thursday as market sentiment was lifted by central bank official's remarks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3.12 points, or 0.01 percent, to 27,222.97. The S&P 500 was up 10.69 points, or 0.36 percent, to 2,995.11. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 22.04 points, or 0.27 percent, to 8,207.24.

Major indices turned up into green territory in the afternoon after New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said "it pays to act quickly to lower rates at the first sign of economic distress."

Market expectations for a rate cut in July were at 100 percent, with 66.9 percent looking to a 50-basis-point cut, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

The gains were kept in checks as investors digested mixed corporate earnings reports.

Shares of Netflix plunged more than 10 percent after the streaming giant reported a large miss on international subscriber number growth.

It reported quarterly international paid subscriber additions of 2.83 million, and domestic paid subscriber losses of 126,000.

The numbers offset its better-than-expected earnings per share result, which hit 0.60 U.S. dollar.

Morgan Stanley reported net revenues of 10.2 billion dollars and earnings per share of 1.23 dollars, both beating Wall Street's estimates.

The market has become increasingly bearish about the second-quarter earnings reports.

Analysts currently estimate S&P 500 year-on-year quarterly earnings will decline 0.1 percent, according to Refinitiv. Enditem