Investing.com - Wall Street was flat on Wednesday, as investors looked ahead to the meeting minutes from the Federal Reserve and political fallout weighed.
The S&P 500 fell 1 point, or 0.06%, to 2,861.32 as of 9:43 AM ET (13:43 GMT), while the Dow rose 9 points, or 0.04%, to 25,832.17 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 9 points, or 0.12% to 7,868.80.
Trade talks between the U.S. and China begin in Washington on Wednesday. The two largest economies in the world have been in a tit-for-tat trade war for months and have so far failed to reach a trade agreement. U.S. President Donald Trump said that he doesn’t expect any progress to be made.
Political fallout also weighed on investors minds, as Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty on eight charges, right before Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty of eight criminal counts.
Meanwhile, the minutes from the Fed’s latest policy meeting come out at 2:00 PM ET (18:00 GMT), which investors will pore over for clues on future monetary policy.
Retailers were among the top gainers after the morning bell, with Target surging 5.13% after its earnings came in higher than expected, while Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) jumped 9.24% and Lowe’s rose 7.61%.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) gained 2.41%, while Twitter was up 0.62% and Boeing (NYSE:BA) increased 0.53%.
Elsewhere, Ford fell 1.27%, while Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) was down 1.08%.
In Europe, stocks were mixed. Germany’s DAX fell 14 points, or 0.11%, while in France the CAC 40 increased 11 points, or 0.22%, and in London, the FTSE 100 was up 16 points, or 0.22%. Meanwhile, the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained 9 points, or 0.28%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 surged 32 points, or 0.34%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.38% to $1,204.50 a troy ounce, while crude oil futures increased 2.10% to $67.22 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.18% to 94.96.