- Fed minutes said almost everyone agreed to a 0.25% hike last time
- The need to control inflation would likely mean more rate hikes
- Indices up: Dow 0.01%, S&P 0.16%, Nasdaq 0.4%
Feb 22 (Portal) – Wall Street’s main indices remained steady on Wednesday in the wake of the release of minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy meeting.
Minutes from Jan 31-Feb 1 session said “almost all” Fed officials agreed to slow the pace of rate hikes to a quarter of a point.
There was also solid support for the belief that the risks of high inflation would remain a “key factor” shaping monetary policy and that further rate hikes would be needed until it was brought under control.
After choppy trading for much of the day, the major benchmark indices went into the minutes release with modest gains. These advances were held after the release of the Fed’s latest commentary.
As of 2:12 p.m. EST (1912 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) was up 4.54 points, or 0.01%, to 33,134.13, the S&P 500 (.SPX) was up 6.22 points, or 0 .16% to 4,003.56 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) rose 45.91 points, or 0.4%, to 11,538.21.
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Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Medha Singh in Bengaluru and David French in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy
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