US markets closed mostly lower after release of Fed minutes

19 Feb 2015 Evaluate

The US markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday; as investors wrestled with interpreting minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting. More Federal Reserve officials were leaning toward keeping rates at zero for a longer time, than wanted an earlier move, according to minutes from the January meeting released suggested the majority is in no real hurry to hike interest rates. Many on the Fed stated that a premature rate hike would harm the recovery, while only several thought a later move would risk high inflation. The minutes show deep concern among Fed officials about dropping the guidance that it can be patient in hiking rates. The minutes showed Fed officials had different ideas about the economic conditions that would be appropriate for the first rate hike.

On the economy front, industrial production rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in January. Another sign of weakness came in a slight downward revision to output in the past four months. Even with the revisions, industrial output advanced at a 4.3% annual rate in the fourth quarter. Capacity utilization held steady at 79.4%, below the 79.9% consensus. Also, the Fed made its first estimate of industrial capacity expansion for 2015, as it sees a 1.8% gain after a 3.1% rise in 2014.

On the other hand, inflationary pressures remained tightly under wraps in the first month of 2015, a residue of the big slump in oil prices since last summer. The producer price index - a good proxy for wholesale costs - fell a record 0.8% in January on a seasonally adjusted basis. It was the third decline in a row and the fifth in the past six months. Construction on new US homes dropped 2% in January to an annual rate of 1.07 million units, as heavy snowfall hindered builders in some regions such as the Midwest and Northeast. Permits also declined slightly but indicated that the pace of construction is likely to remain at or near current levels heading into the spring.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 17.73 points or 0.10 percent to 18,029.85, the S&P 500 was down by 0.66 points or 0.03 percent to 2,099.68 while, the Nasdaq was up by 7.09 points or 0.14 percent to 4,906.36.

The Indian ADRs closed mostly in red on Wednesday; Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down by 0.47%, Wipro was down 0.20% and HDFC Bank was down by 0.06%. On the other hand, Infosys was up 0.33% and Tata Motors was up 0.26%.

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