US stocks fall ahead of Fed Reserve minutes

New York - Wall Street stocks fell early Wednesday ahead of the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes that could shed light on the central bank's plans for lifting interest rates.

About 30 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 17 366.03, down 145.31 points.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.72% to 2 081.74, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost  0.69% at 5 024.35.

The Fed minutes, scheduled for release at 20:00, will be scrutinized for signs of when the central bank will begin hiking benchmark interest rates, expected this year.

However, the July meeting took place before China unexpectedly devalued its currency and at a time when oil prices were 13% higher than they are today, said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

"The major risk with the minutes today is that they will be over-analyzed and subject to accusations that (what) was said then may not necessarily apply now," he said.

Big-box retailer Target jumped 4.2% after lifting its full-year earnings forecast to $4.60 to $4.75 per share from $4.50 to $4.65 following a second quarter that bested the company's projections.

Home-improvement retailer Lowe's added 0.3% as second-quarter earnings rose 8.4% to $1.1bn.

Staples, an office-products retailer, fell 0.5% on second-quarter earnings of $36m, down 56% from the year-ago period.

Metals producers Freeport-McMoRan and Southern Copper fell 1.2% and 1.6%, respectively, one day after copper prices dropped below $5 000 a metric ton for the first time since 2009.

Bond prices dipped. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.21% from 2.20% on Tuesday, while the 30-year advanced to 2.88% from 2.86%. Bond prices and yields move inversely.