LONDON (ShareCast) - US stocks fluctuated on Wednesday after minutes revealed Federal Reserve officials were leaning toward keeping rates at zero "for a longer time".
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 17.73 points at 18,029.85, while the S&P 500 lost 0.67 points and the Nasdaq edged forward by 7.10 points.

Minutes from the Fed January released on Wednesday showed that "many" on the Fed committee said a premature rate increase could be detrimental for the recovery, while "several" believed a later move could lead to high inflation.

Many Fed officials worried that once the term "patient" is scrapped, markets will assume the Fed is set to move on "an unduly narrow range of dates," which could lead to "undesirably tight" financial conditions".

"Concern about downside risk to inflation has risen and, consequently, the bar for raising rates by June is higher than it was in December," analysts at Barclays said in a note.

"We maintain our baseline forecast for a June rate hike at this juncture, but the risk of a later takeoff has risen, particularly if downside surprises on core inflation continue.

"We look to Chair Yellen's comments in front of the US Senate and House of Representatives next week for further clarification on the committee's thinking."

According to data released by the Fed on Wednesday, industrial production rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in January, falling short of the expected 0.4% increase.

US producer prices fell 0.8% month-on-month in January, driven by a 24% drop in gasoline prices from the previous month.

The fall took the annual producer price index inflation down to 0.0% from 1.1%, with the index having been as high as 1.6% in January.

"The stronger dollar appears to be having some impact too, with core final demand goods prices falling by 0.2% month-on-month," said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics.

"As with the drop in energy prices, however, the impact of the stronger dollar on price inflation will be temporary.

"Given that the Fed is targeting the inflation rate in one or two years' time rather than the current rate, this is not a reason to delay the first interest rate hike, which we expect in June."

Meanwhile, US housing starts fell by 2% month-on-month in January to reach an annualised rate of 1.065m, according to the US Department of Commerce.

The consensus forecast had been for a decline of 1.7%.

However, that was more than compensated for by an upwards revision to the previous month's data, which now shows a rise of 7.1% on the month instead of the preliminary estimate of 4.4%.

In corporate news, Angie's List surged 58.90% after posting quarterly profit and revenue that topped Wall Street's expectations, while Boston Scientific jumped 12.40% after announcing on Tuesday it had reached a settlement with Johnson & Johnson over the acquisition of Guidant Corp. in 2004.

Ball rose 3.72% as reports emerged that the packaging giant could conclude a £4bn deal for UK-based sector peer Rexam.

Among the fallers, Fossil tanked 16.10% after the reporting late on Tuesday that its adjusted fourth-quarter earnings missed expectations and that revenue had also disappointed.

Oil prices tumbled, with Brent crude losing 4.1% to $60.04 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate lost 3.6% ending the day at $51.68 a barrel.

Gold futures gained 0.19% to $1,210.90p, while the dollar lost almost 0.6% against the pound and 0.5% against the yen while it was largely stable against the euro.

S&P 500 - Risers
Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX) $16.68 +12.40%
Tesoro Corp. (TSO) $87.09 +4.60%
NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) $25.92 +3.76%
Ball Corp (BLL) $77.16 +3.72%
Sempra Energy (SRE) $109.71 +3.25%
Flowserve Corp. (FLS) $61.50 +3.22%
CMS Energy Corp. (CMS) $35.98 +3.21%
NiSource Inc. (NI) $43.91 +3.17%
DTE Energy Co. (DTE) $84.50 +3.16%
Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL) $36.30 +3.15%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Fossil Group Inc (FOSL) $83.65 -15.78%
Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) $50.71 -10.74%
Genworth Financial Inc. (GNW) $8.02 -9.07%
Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (DO) $34.06 -7.82%
Transocean Ltd. (RIG) $17.76 -6.77%
Denbury Resources Inc. (DNR) $8.63 -4.85%
CenturyLink Inc. (CTL) $37.51 -4.38%
Allegion (ALLE) $56.00 -4.37%
Devon Energy Corp. (DVN) $63.95 -4.05%
Ensco Plc. (ESV) $30.06 -3.25%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Nike Inc. (NKE) $93.62 +1.92%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $86.26 +0.90%
American Express Co. (AXP) $79.78 +0.89%
Boeing Co. (BA) $151.17 +0.87%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $162.19 +0.76%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $29.49 +0.60%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $121.99 +0.55%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $86.29 +0.38%
General Electric Co. (GE) $25.25 +0.32%
3M Co. (MMM) $167.40 +0.29%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $91.01 -2.19%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $110.44 -1.74%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $34.26 -1.35%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $59.37 -1.21%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $188.67 -0.71%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $84.80 -0.68%
Visa Inc. (V) $269.12 -0.65%
AT&T Inc. (T) $34.49 -0.63%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $99.96 -0.48%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $48.94 -0.46%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM) $57.20 +2.27%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $109.00 +2.09%
Stericycle Inc. (SRCL) $134.65 +2.08%
Nxp Semiconductors Nv (NXPI) $85.36 +1.96%
Celgene Corp. (CELG) $118.41 +1.80%
TripAdvisor Inc. (TRIP) $85.58 +1.57%
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTSH) $61.09 +1.50%
Facebook Inc. (FB) $76.71 +1.47%
Monster Beverage Corp (MNST) $120.28 +1.33%
Cerner Corp. (CERN) $70.60 +1.22%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) $50.71 -10.74%
Viacom Inc. Class B (VIAB) $68.09 -1.80%
Vodafone Group Plc ADS (VOD) $34.85 -1.75%
Linear Technology Corp. (LLTC) $47.96 -1.62%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $34.26 -1.35%
Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) $174.30 -1.22%
Altera Corp. (ALTR) $35.80 -1.21%
Symantec Corp. (SYMC) $25.69 -1.19%
Mattel Inc. (MAT) $26.70 -1.18%
Vimpelcom Ltd Ads (VIP) $5.17 -1.15%

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