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US close: Wall Street reverses losses after Fed minutes
Wall Street reversed early losses after central bank officials signalled that - for now at least - the pace of policy tightening was not set to quicken.
By the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial was 0.21% or 52.40 points higher to 24,886.81, alongside a 0.32% or 8.85 point advance for the S&P 500 to 2,733.29, while the Nasdaq Composite was 0.64% or 47.50 points up at 7,425.96.
Pacing gains, by industrial groups, were: Non-ferrous metals (2.88%), Home Improvement Retailers (2.46%) and Specialty Retailers (2.33%).
Shares in tobacco companies also did well, rising by 1.80%.
Alongside stocks, the yield on the benchmark two-year US Treasury note was four basis points lower to 2.53%, while that on the 10-year note slipped back below the 3.0% mark, after a seven basis point retreat for the session.
According to the minutes of the 2 May meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, rate-setters expected to raise rates again in June.
However, they also emphasised the "symmetric" nature of their inflation target, such that gains in prices modestly above it are not a worry - after years of consistently weak readings - so long as policy is consistent with the medium-term 2% target.
"Participants are watching the wage numbers closely but evidence of a broad acceleration remains scant. In short, then, the FOMC still thinks it has the luxury of time to see the full impact of the fiscal easing and the uncertainty over foreign trade, so a shift to a more aggressive stance - dropping "roughly balanced" risks, for example - is still some way off," explained Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Also helping sentiment perhaps, President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made cautious, yet more positive sounding, remarks on China and North Korea than during the previous session.
On Tuesday night, Trump had also said that there was a "very substantial chance" a historic summit with North Korea's Kim Jong-Un next month may not happen.
Elsewhere, while giving a speech to an anti-abortion group in Washington, Trump hinted that his administration had further tax cuts in store by the end of the year.
Following the Republican Party's $1.5trn tax cut enacted back in December, Trump said on Tuesday that his administration would be "submitting additional tax cuts sometime prior to November".
"It's going to be something very special," the President said.
In corporate news, shares of Tiffany's surged 23.29% in early trade as the jeweller's first-quarter results beat analysts' expectations thanks to strong demand in the US. The company also announced a new $1bn share buyback programme.
Discount store retailer Target lost 5.70% after its first-quarter revenue beat expectations but the company missed on profits.
Home improvement and appliances retailer Lowe's gained 10.43% after the release of its first-quarter results and Tesla gained 0.31% after analysts recommended investors "lean into the fever pitch" of negative sentiment.
On the data front, IHS Markit's manufacturing PMI inched up to 56.6 in May from 56.5 in April, while its services PMI climbed to 55.7 from the 54.6 shown a month earlier.
Economists had predicted manufacturing PMI would be unchanged at its highest level since October 2014 and above the threshold of 50 separating growth from contraction.
Elsewhere, new home sales for April fell, as setbacks seen across the coast and rising borrowing costs and property prices seemed to limit the market's progress, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Single-family home sales declined 1.5% to 662,000 while median sales price increased 0.4% year-on-year to $312,400.
Sales fell 7.9% in the West, while purchases in the Midwest were unchanged and up marginally in the South.
Minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting earlier this month were set to be released at 1900 BST.
CMC Markets analyst David Madden said, "Last month the US central bank confirmed they were confident the inflation target would be achieved but were less optimistic about growth. Traders are pencilling in an interest rate hike next month, but they remain divided about how many more rate hikes we could see beyond June."
Dow Jones - Risers
Intel Corp. (INTC) $55.21 1.40%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $98.66 1.19%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $59.17 1.02%
Visa Inc. (V) $131.88 0.93%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $188.36 0.64%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $35.97 0.47%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $48.58 0.31%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $112.48 0.30%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $74.18 0.16%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $161.62 0.09%
Dow Jones - Fallers
General Electric Co. (GE) $14.18 -7.08%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $67.04 -2.32%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $83.01 -1.77%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $186.58 -1.64%
3M Co. (MMM) $198.67 -1.53%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $244.17 -1.47%
Boeing Co. (BA) $359.21 -1.29%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $102.89 -1.12%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $157.74 -0.74%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $144.65 -0.56%
S&P 500 - Risers
Tiffany & Co. (TIF) $126.07 22.09%
Ralph Lauren Corp (RL) $133.33 13.88%
Lowe's Companies Inc. (LOW) $94.69 8.35%
Endo International Plc (ENDP) $6.38 7.23%
Spectra Energy Corp. (SE) $14.27 4.78%
Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX) $17.35 3.95%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $344.72 3.95%
Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) $47.62 3.88%
TJX Companies Inc. (TJX) $87.89 3.77%
Kimco Realty Corp. (KIM) $15.17 3.55%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Frontier Communications Co. (FTR) $8.36 -12.18%
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) $15.58 -11.02%
Target Corp. (TGT) $71.14 -7.42%
General Electric Co. (GE) $14.18 -7.08%
AutoZone Inc. (AZO) $622.09 -6.47%
Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD) $199.49 -4.93%
Kohls Corp. (KSS) $62.26 -4.90%
FMC Technologies Inc. (FTI) $32.57 -4.23%
Johnson Controls International plc (JCI) $34.22 -4.23%
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $68.76 -4.06%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Ctrip.Com International Ltd. Ads (CTRP) $45.17 3.98%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $344.72 3.95%
Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $308.20 3.47%
Mercadolibre Inc. (MELI) $304.79 3.40%
Intuit Inc. (INTU) $196.23 2.99%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $58.82 2.49%
Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) $274.09 2.40%
Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) $243.91 2.14%
Idexx Laboratories Inc. (IDXX) $204.16 2.09%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $247.54 1.99%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $68.76 -4.06%
Dish Network Corp. (DISH) $30.98 -3.10%
Qurate Retail Group Inc QVC Group (QRTEA) $21.43 -2.59%
Shire Plc Ads (SHPG) $166.43 -2.04%
Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) $31.88 -1.94%
DENTSPLY Sirona Inc. (XRAY) $46.50 -1.59%
Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) $94.39 -1.38%
Vodafone Group Plc ADS (VOD) $26.59 -1.30%
NetEase Inc. Ads (NTES) $232.53 -1.21%
Asml Holdings N.V. (ASML) $200.20 -1.16%