Investing.com – U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday, after the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its March meeting, and signalled it would start to shrink its $4.5 trillion balance sheet later this year.
Prior to the release of the Federal Reserve minutes, the Nasdaq hit an intraday record high while the Dow rose nearly 200 points to a session high of 20,887, on the back of bullish private sector job growth.
ADP and Moody's Analytics said U.S. private employers added 263,000 jobs for the month. That was well above economists’ expectations of 187,000.
Positive sentiment quickly turned negative, after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting indicated that the U.S. central bank was poised to start unwinding its $4.5 trillion balance sheet later this year.
The minutes also revealed mixed consensus regarding the impact of Trump’s fiscal stimulus package on growth, as some Federal Reserve officials, either didn’t factor in fiscal stimulus into growth projections or expect it to impact economic growth in 2018.
Meanwhile, on the political front, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday, tax reform will take longer to accomplish than repealing and replacing Obamacare would.
In corporate news, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares hit a record high, after the e-commerce giant secured the rights to stream 10 “Thursday Night Football” games in the coming season.
Elsewhere, investors maintained focus on the upcoming two-day meeting on Thursday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.20% lower at 20,648. The S&P 500 lost 0.31% and the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.58% lower at 5864.48.
The top S&P 500 gainers DXC Technology Co (NYSE:DXC) up 3.4%, and Under Armour Inc C (NYSE:UA) up 3%, while Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) added 2.9%.
Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) down 3.3%, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (NASDAQ:BBBY) down 3% and Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) down 2.9%, were among the worst S&P 500 performers of the session.