Wall St. Mutes Focusing on Trade Negotiations, Fed Statement by Reuters

By Shreyashi Sanyal

(Reuters) – US stocks changed little on Wednesday as investors weighed the latest developments in trade talks between the United States and China, pending the minutes of the January Federal Reserve meeting.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that trade talks with China were proceeding well and hinted that he was willing to extend the deadline for completing the negotiations, saying that March 1 was not a "magic" date.

Until now, it was assumed that US tariffs on Chinese imports worth $ 200 billion would increase from 10% to 25% if no trade agreement was concluded. here there.

"A positive market outcome this week will be for both parties to agree to extend the deadline of March 1, which should leave more time to find a common ground on trade policy," wrote the paper. 39, FXTM analyst, Lukman Otunuga.

"Trump said the talks were" very complex "and that the March deadline was not a" magic date ", a decisive agreement is still distant."

The Federal Open Market Committee is expected to release the minutes of its January meeting at 2 pm ET (1900 GMT), offering more insights on monetary policy.

The minutes are expected to reaffirm the Federal Reserve's statement last month that it would be "patient" with further rate hikes after the markets evaporated at the end of December, fearing an economic slowdown.

The financial sector fell by 0.29%.

"Investors are waiting for more details about the Fed's downsizing and, of course, more clues about the Fed's pause," writes Peter Cardillo, chief economist of the markets at Spartan Capital Securities.

The benchmark rose about 18% from December's lows, fueled by trade-driven optimism, by a largely optimistic earnings season for the fourth quarter and by an accommodating Fed.

Earnings at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ 🙂 and chip makers put the index on track to rise for the eighth day.

At 9:53 am Eastern Time, the increase was 10.31 points, or 0.04%, to 25,901.63. The S & P 500 was down 0.06 point, or 0.00%, to 2,779.70 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 15.12 points, or 0.20%, to 7,501.88.

The health care sector fell 0.44%, hurt by an 8.7% decline in the shares of CVS Health Corp (NYSE :). The operator of the pharmacy chain missed earnings forecasts for the year due to the weakness of its long-term health services business.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE: Co) fell 5.2% after the carrier lowered its first-quarter revenue forecast for head office due to weak passenger demand and a $ 60 million reduction dollars from the partial closure of the US government.

The carrier pulled down shares of other airlines, lowering the Dow Jones US Airlines index by 2.66%.

Garmin Ltd (NASDAQ 🙂 jumped 14%, the highest on the S & P, after forecasting better-than-expected annual results and posting strong quarterly results thanks to increased demand for smartwatches and navigation systems.

Increasing issues outnumbered decliers with a ratio of 1.17 to 1 on the NYSE and a ratio of 1.17 to one on the Nasdaq.

The S & P index posted 16 new highs over 52 weeks and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 52 new highs and eight new lows.