Wall Street opens lower as Fed minutes awaited

New York - Wall Street stocks opened lower on Wednesday as retailer Target sank nearly 7% on disappointing sales reported in its quarterly results.

Markets were anticipating the release of minutes later on Wednesday from the US Federal Reserve, which may reveal policymakers' views on the near-term outlook for interest rates.

In addition to target, office supply chain Staples also disappointed analysts with its earnings and sank 6.5%.

A sign of a dour mood in the sector, other retailers were also in negative territory. Walmart Stores lost 0.6%, Nordstrom 1.1% and Gap was 0.4% lower.

Half an hour into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4% at 18 484.36. The much broader S&P 500 was also down 0.3% at 2 171.55 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq down 0.3% at 5 212.73.

Cisco Systems, the networking equipment manufacturer, lost 1.8% on the Nasdaq exchange as investors awaited full-year results later today that could be accompanied by layoffs.

Federal Reserve minutes for its late July meeting could give insight into just how confident central bank officials are in US economic growth and in their expectations for raising interest rates over the coming year.