US stocks close higher after Federal Reserve minutes

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Major US stock exchanges closed Wednesday higher after the release of the Federal Reserve's last monetary policy meeting's minutes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 55 points, or 0.14%, to finish the session at 40,890.

The S&P 500 added 23 points, or 0.42%, reaching 5,620. The Nasdaq Composite rose 102 points, or 0.57%, to almost 17,919.

The VIX volatility index, referred to as the "fear index," climbed 2.7% to 16.31. The 10-year US Treasury yield fell 0.45% to 3.802%.

The US dollar index lost 0.29% to 101.15, while the euro added 0.17% against the dollar, trading at $1.1149.

Precious metals were mixed with gold falling 0.11% to $2,511 per ounce but silver rising 0.3% to reach $29.53 per ounce.

Oil prices decreased more than 1.5%, with global benchmark Brent crude at $75.99 per barrel and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate at $71.84 per barrel.

The Fed is "likely" to begin cutting interest rates in September, according to minutes of the central bank's most recent meeting that was released earlier.

"The vast majority (of FOMC members) observed that, if the data continued to come in about as expected, it would likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting," it said.

The non-farm payroll growth in the US, in addition, was revised down by 818,000 for the 12-month period ending March this year, according to the latest Labor Department figures released earlier.

The latest figure show that 2.1 million jobs were added during the April 2023 - March 2024 period, instead of 2.9 million initially reported. The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics' downward revision percentage of 0.5% marks the largest since 2009.

Investors are now focused on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech on Friday at the annual Jackson Hole symposium in the US state of Wyoming.