US stocks inch higher despite minutes show rate hike likely soon

US stocks closed mostly higher on Wednesday despite Fed minutes confirming policy makers plan to hike rates soon. The dollar ended higher as minutes showed Federal Open Market Committee members supported monetary tightening but wanted to see more data pointing to accelerating inflation and growth.
The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.28% to 97.959. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.1% to 18144.20 with the shares of Nike and Apple leading the blue chip index higher. The S&P 500 added 0.1% settling at 2139.21 led by real estate, utilities and telecom stocks. The Nasdaq lost 0.2% to 5239.02 with selloff in biotechnology stocks dragging the technology index lower. The minutes revealed policy makers plan to hike rates “relatively soon” but held off raising interest rates at September meeting as they wanted to see more evidence of full employment and gains in inflation. Market participants are expecting currently the Fed will raise rates in December, with rate hike expectations limiting gains in stock prices. On Wednesday, New York Fed President William Dudley said interest rate hikes will be “gentle.” Falling corporate earnings expectations for the third quarter, the sixth straight quarterly decline, weigh market sentiment despite expectations sales should rebound after six quarters of declines. Today at 14:30 CET Initial Jobless Claims and Continuing Claims will be released in US. At the same time September Import Prices will be published, the tentative outlook positive. At 18:15 CET Fed President Harker will speak about the US economy in Philadelphia.