The US markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday, as investors mulled over the minutes from last month’s Federal Reserve meeting. Federal Reserve officials agreed in December to start to wind down their asset purchase program as most believed that the benefits of the controversial policy were eroding over time. Minutes from the December 17-18 meeting included the results of a survey of officials about the costs and benefits of the program, commonly called quantitative easing. The survey found that a majority of participants judged that the marginal efficacy of purchases was likely declining as purchases continue. At the December meeting, the Fed agreed to begin to taper its bond-purchase program by $10 billion to $75 billion per month starting in January. Fed officials expressed greater confidence in the economic outlook. They added that future reductions would be undertaken in measured steps.
On the economy front, Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) reported that private-sector employment picked up in December, as employers added 238,000 jobs, the most since November 2012. ADP revised November’s gain to 229,000. Besides, consumer credit grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.8% in November, representing a gain of $12.32 billion. That’s the smallest percentage gain since April. Revolving credit like credit cards grew just 0.6% after a 5.6% advance in October. Non-revolving credit like auto and student loans meanwhile grew 6.4%, which still is the slowest rate of growth since May.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 68.20 points or 0.41 percent to 16,462.74, the S&P 500 was down 0.39 points or 0.02 percent to 1,837.49, while Nasdaq added 12.43 points or 0.30 percent to 4,165.61.
Indian ADRs closed mostly in green on Wednesday; Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 0.67%, Tata Motors was up 0.57% and ICICI Bank was up 0.17%. On the other hand, Infosys was down 0.33% and HDFC Bank was down 0.29%.