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The U.S. stock market rocked back and forth in the wake of the latest minutes from the last month’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee before closing marginally lower on Wednesday. After an initial positive jolt, the market shrank back, as Fed minutes revealed scant little insights about the U.S. central bank’s policy plans.
The S&P 500 SPX, -0.15% closed 3.1 points lower at 2,048.72, ending its four-day winning streak.
The U.S. dollar rocketed past the 118 yen mark Wednesday after minutes from the October meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee reaffirmed that the central bank intends to hike rates toward the end of 2015.
The dollar USDJPY, +0.57% fluctuated wildly against the yen, and to a lesser extend the euro, immediately after the Fed minutes were released at 2 p.m. Eastern.
In other currency trading, the euro EURUSD, -0.06% moved higher against the dollar for the second consecutive session, briefly climbing to $1.2605 immediately after the FOMC minutes before falling back to $1.2543. The shared currency traded at $1.2522 late Tuesday.
The pound GBPUSD, -0.04% also traded higher against the dollar at $1.5676, compared with $1.5614 Tuesday afternoon.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, +0.03% a measure of the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was down 0.12% to 87.4750.
Nymex gasoline for December RBZ4, -0.15% gained less than a penny to settle at $2.0438 a gallon. The contract has been up for two consecutive sessions.
December silver SIZ4, -1.65% added 12 cents, or 0.7%, to $16.29 an ounce.
December heating oil HOZ4, +0.38% fell 2 cents, or 0.9%, to $2.3590 a gallon on Nymex. Natural gas for december delivery NGZ14, +0.59% rose 13 cents, or 3%, to end at $4.3710 per million British thermal units on Nymex.
Crude-oil futures on Wednesday extended losses to a third straight session, as an earlier rebound fizzled and investors focused on a surprise increase in supplies.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in December CLZ4, +0.09% fell 3 cents, less than 0.1%, to settle at $74.58 a barrel. Prices have lost 1.6% over the past three sessions.
January Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange LCOF5, +0.24% fell 37 cents, or 0.5%, to finish at $78.10 a barrel. Brent prices slid 1.7% in the last three sessions.
