New York Report: Wall St edges lower as Fed minutes weigh
US stocks slid yesterday in a late sell off after minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s latest policy-setting meeting indicated that the central bank will keep trimming its bond-buying stimulus unless there is a significant economic surprise.
Minutes from the January meeting of the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting committee showed that several policymakers wanted to hone in on the idea that their asset-purchase program would be trimmed in predictable, $10bnsteps unless there is a big economic surprise this year.
The statement doesn’t deviate much from previous Fed communications, but market participants have been expecting the Fed to point to recent weakness in the economic data and reinforce their commitment to stimulating the economy.
Data on Wednesday showed US housing starts recorded their biggest drop in almost three years in January. The seasonally-adjustedUS Producer Price Index for final demand rose 0.2 per cent, no real indication of a broad pickup in inflation pressures.
The data was among a slew of recent economic reports affected by a severe US winter, including a US homebuilder confidence index on Tuesday, which suffered its largest ever one-month drop in February. The weather was also largely blamed for the sharp slowdown in hiring in December.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 89.84 points or 0.56 per cent, to end at 16,040.56. The S&P 500 slipped 12.01 points or 0.65 per cent, to finish at 1,828.75. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 34.83 points or 0.82 per cent, to close at 4,237.954.