Seven out of 10 sectors closed higher led by health care and consumer discretionary sector
U.S. stocks closed slightly higher on Wednesday, 08 April 2015 in volatile trading following the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes where several Federal Reserve officials had favored a June rate hike. Afternoon release of FOMC minutes that provided little clarity regarding the timing of the first rate hike.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average which had been up as many as 100 points before the minutes and down as many as 53 points after the minutes, finished up 27.09 points, or 0.2%, at 17,902.51. The S&P closed up 5.57 points, or 0.3%, to 2,081.90, after being down as many as 3 points earlier in the day. The Nasdaq Composite which remained in positive territory for the session, closed up 40.59 points, or 0.8%, to 4,950.82.
Seven of the 10 sectors of the S&P 500 closed higher, led by health care and consumer discretionary. Telecom and energy were the biggest laggards.
Nike and Home Depot led gainers among the Dow industrial components.
According to the minutes, FOMC members were split over whether June would be the right time to begin raising rates. Several members believed that recent data and the outlook warranted a rate hike in June while others voiced concerns that the economic outlook would not be strong enough to support a rate hike in the near term.
The dollar was also discussed in the minutes with participants acknowledging that net exports would be hampered by the strong greenback. In addition, a few members voiced their belief that the dovish tone emanating from global central banks could lead to additional dollar strength.
Fittingly, the Dollar Index erased its intraday loss in reaction to the minutes, adding 0.2% for the day. P> Crude oil futures plunged on Wednesday, 08 April 2015 erasing much of a two-day gain that had previously put the U.S. benchmark in positive territory for 2015, after data showed U.S. oil inventories posted the largest one-week jump since 2001. The figures helped dash notions that the market was beginning to work through a supply glut that has helped drive oil down more than 50% from its mid-2014 peak. Oil prices have been volatile in recent weeks on the back of unrest in Yemen, the Iranian nuclear talks, wide swings in currency markets and indications of stronger oil demand.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in May fell $3.56, or 6.6%, to close at $50.42 a barrel. The U.S. benchmark had gained around 10% over the previous two days to end Tuesday at its highest level of the year. With Wednesday's drop, Nymex crude is down more than 5% since the end of 2014.
In the latest weekly inventory report, oil extended losses after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said commercial crude inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, jumped by 10.9 million barrels to 482.4 million in the week ended 3 April 2015 far exceeding the 3.2 million barrel rise forecast, on average. The rise was the largest weekly jump since March 2001.
Gold prices ended the U.S. day session moderately lower on Wednesday, 08 APril 2015 on another corrective pullback from early-week gains. The latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes from last month's meeting showed that FOMC members were divided on the timing of a U.S. interest rate hike. Markets initially brushed off the minutes as containing nothing new.
Gold for June delivery fell $7.50, or 0.6%, to settle $1,203.10 an ounce but dropped further to $1,197.60 an ounce once the minutes were published. May silver lost 39 cents, or 2.3%, to $16.45 an ounce.
Economic data reported this morning was limited to the weekly MBA Mortgage Index, which ticked up 0.4% to follow last week's 4.6% increase.
Treasuries ended the day on a modestly lower note with the 10-yr yield rising one basis point to 1.90%. The benchmark yield saw little reaction to the afternoon release of FOMC minutes that provided little clarity regarding the timing of the first rate hike.
Today's participation was close to recent averages with roughly 750 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.
Tomorrow, weekly Initial Claims (consensus 285K) will be released at 8:30 ET while the Wholesale Inventories report for February will cross at 10:00 ET (expected 0.2%).
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