by Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Aug 17 (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended lower on Wednesday as markets turned volatile after the release of the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s (Fed) meeting.
The Dow Jones index fell -0.5%, or 171.69 points, to 33,980.32 points.
The broader S&P-500 fell 31.16 points, or -0.72%, to 4,274.04 points.
The Nasdaq Composite fell for its part by 164.43 points (-1.25%) to 12,938.12 points.
The three main Wall Street indices, which had risen immediately after the publication of the “minutes” of the Fed’s monetary policy meeting on July 26 and 27, ended the session in negative territory.
The “minutes” showed that US central bank officials did not see inflationary pressures in the US diminishing, and felt that a decline in inflation could take longer than expected.
The U.S. central bank has raised its key rate by a total of 225 basis points since the start of the year and investors expect it to raise rates by 75 basis points at its meeting in September.
“(Fed officials) kept their hawkish attitude, but they also cleared the way for a possible half-point rate hike in September, not 75 basis points,” he said. Peter Cardillo, chief economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
The market was already on a downward trend before the publication of the “minutes”, growth stocks being affected by the rise in bond yields, while the weak results of Target weighed on the distribution sector.
Lowe’s, the number two U.S. home improvement store, rose after reporting quarterly profit that beat expectations.
(With contributions from Bansari Mayur Kamdar, Devik Jain and Sruthi Shankar; French version Camille Raynaud)