Investing.com – Wall Street traded flat with mixed signs as investors waited for the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) last policy meeting.
At 11:34AM ET (16:34GMT), the Dow Jones inched up 8 points, or 0.06%, the S&P 500 lost 3 points, or 0.15%, while the Nasdaq Composite gave up 7 points, or 0.12%.
The Fed will release minutes of its most recent policy meeting on Wednesday at 2:00PM ET (19:00GMT). The U.S. central bank held interest rates steady following its meeting on February 1 and painted a relatively upbeat picture of the economy, although it gave no firm signal on the timing of its next rate move.
Fed chair Janet Yellen raised market expectations for a near-term rate hike last week after saying it would be “unwise” to keep interest rates lower for longer.
Still, markets place only a 22% chance of a hike at the March 14-15 meeting, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Ahead of the publication of the minutes, Fed fund futures put the odds for an increase in rates at the May meeting at 48.8%, just below the 50% threshold, while June was baked in with odds at 70.5%.
Odds for a second move hovered around 50% for the September and November meeting, at 47.9% and 52.4%, respectively.
Besides the Fed minutes, there are two Fed speakers Wednesday. Central bank Governor Jerome Powell speaks at 1:00PM ET (18:00GMT) in New York at the Forecasters Club of New York on the economic outlook and policy. Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan discusses issues facing the global economy at a Dallas Fed event at 7:05PM ET (00:05GMT on Thursday).
On a light day for data, existing home sales gave good news for the housing market as they started 2017 off at their fastest pace in nearly a decade.
The dollar traded flat against other major currencies on Wednesday, as the euro erased earlier losses, although the greenback remained supported by strong U.S. housing sector data and ahead of the Fed minutes.
EUR/USD was last up 0.02% at 1.0538, off a six-week trough of 1.0494 hit earlier in the day.
The euro bounced off session lows after French Centrist François Bayrou said he would not be running in the upcoming Presidential election, easing local political uncertainties over the possible victory of far right, euro-skeptic candidate Marine Le Pen.
In earnings news, Garmin Ltd (NASDAQ:GRMN) led the advancers on the S&P 500 higher with gains of nearly 8% after the GPS-devices maker posted its fifth-straight quarterly profit and sales beat.
In the negative First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) led the benchmark index lower with losses of more than 7% after the solar firm reported its biggest-ever loss and cutting its earnings forecast.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), HP (NYSE:HPQ) L Brands (NYSE:LB) and Square (NYSE:SQ), are all due to report after the market close.
Meanwhile, oil prices fell more than 1% on Wednesday as an OPEC technical committee meeting finished with few headlines other than the Qatar energy minister stating that findings were “encouraging” and investors looked ahead to weekly stockpile data.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) will produce their numbers later on Wednesday whilethe Energy Information Administration will release official data on crude inventories on Thursday with expectations for a build of 3.325 million barrels.
Both reports are released one day later than normal due to Monday’s holiday.
U.S. crude futures lost 1.55% to $53.49 by 11:36AM ET (16:36GMT), while Brent oil traded down 1.66% to $55.72.