US open: Shares hold ground ahead of FOMC minutes
Wall Street is holding its ground following the record highs set the day before, albeit amid lighter than usual trading volumes ahead of the Thanksgiving Holiday on Thursday, with investors looking to the release of the minutes of the most recent meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee.
At 1742 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by 0.29% or 68.10 points at 23,522.73, alongside a 0.09% or 2.34 point dip for the S&P 500 to 2,597.16 while the Nasdaq Composite was eking out a gain of 0.05% or 3.61 points to 6,866.09.
From a sector standpoint, the strongest areas of the market were: Aluminium (1.95%), Fixed line telecommunications (1.76%) and Electronic office equipment (1.74%).
On Tuesday, all three indices hit record highs as tech stocks rallied, with the likes of Facebook, Netflix and Amazon all in the black.
Ahead of the FOMC minutes, Konstantinos Anthis at ADS Securities said: "This morning the dollar Index dropped below the 94.00 mark extending its pullback after the gains we saw on Monday. Today it might get some support from the FOMC minutes release that should reaffirm traders' conviction that the US central bank will raise rates again in December.
"A rate hike next month is fully priced in by now however given the lack of any other catalysts and with dollar traders desperate for something positive to latch on to, there might be scope for the dollar to recover today. The instruments to look for opportunities are the Japanese yen and gold."
For the most part, Wednesday's batch of economic data releases were in-line with market forecasts.
The key report on Wednesday was the University of Michigan's final reading on US consumer sentiment for the month of November, which was revised higher from a preliminary reading of 97.8 to 98.5 (consensus: 98.2).
"In contrast to the media buzz about approaching cyclical peaks and an aging expansion, with the implication of greater uncertainty about future economic trends, consumers have voiced greater certainty about their expectations for income, employment, and inflation.
"[...] Overall, the data signal an expected gain of 2.7% in real consumption expenditures in 2018, and more importantly for retailers, the best runup to the holiday shopping season in a decade," said Richard Curtin, the survey's chief economist.
Elsewhere, the Department of Labor reported a 13,000 person drop in initial jobless claims for the week ending on 18 November to reach 239,000 (consensus: 240,000).
Durable goods orders on the other hand fell by a sharp 1.2% month-on-month in October (consensus: 0.3%), the Department of Commerce reported, dragged down by large declines in the oft-volatile orders for civilian and defence aircraft.
However, excluding transportation equipment orders in fact rose by 0.4% on the month, just as expected.
On corporate front, Hewlett Packard was weaker after the company said late on Tuesday that chief executive Meg Whitman was leaving and issued a disappointing first-quarter outlook.
Salesforce shares were lower - but just off their record highs - after the CRM specialist posted slightly stronger than forecast third quarter sales of $2.68bn but alongside guidance for the following three months that fell short of expectations.
Elsewhere, stock in Deere & Co was a top gainer after the tractor-maker posted a 79% jump in profits for the fourth quarter.
Rockwell Automation was also in focus after it rejected an unsolicited buyout bid from Emerson.