Wall Street starts in the red as investors await Fed minutes

Frankfurt Ahead of the eagerly awaited release of the latest Fed minutes, investors are only sporadically stocking up on US stocks. The leading index Dow Jones was virtually unchanged on Wednesday at 31,933 points. The market-ready S&P 500 rose by 0.4 percent, but did not make it back above the important 4000 point mark. The index of the tech exchange Nasdaq rose by 0.8 percent.

Later, the US Federal Reserve will present the minutes for the most recent meeting. Analyst Raffi Boyadjian of brokerage house XM said investors would pay particular attention to the assessment of the leading US central bankers on the development of inflation and the reduction in securities holdings. “Recent economic data, which is anything but robust, is fueling speculation that the Fed may not have to raise rates as aggressively as originally thought.”