(Reuters) - U.S. stocks opened higher on Wednesday morning ahead of the latest Federal Reserve's minutes, which will offer investors clues on future interest rake hikes this year.þþThe central bank will release the details of the July policy meeting at 1400 ET (1800 GMT).þþPolicymakers unanimously decided to keep interest rates unchanged in the July 25-26 meeting and said they planned to reduce the central bank's massive holdings of bonds ÿrelatively soonÿ.þþÿInvestors are looking at expectations of rates going up, but not right away, in a measured pace,ÿ said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital. ÿI don't believe the Fed's going to bring any shocking news to investors.ÿþþA slide in inflation readings in recent months, which remain below the Fed's 2 percent target rate, have made the markets skeptical about a rate hike by December.þþHowever, recent hawkish comments by New York Fed chief William Dudley advocating for another rate hike this year and strong retail sales data on Tuesday have upped the odds.þþþChances of a December hike rose to 49.2 percent, up from 42 percent at the start of the week, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.þþAt 9:39 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 46.94 points, or 0.21 percent, at 22,045.93 and the S&P 500 was up 4.79 points, or 0.19 percent, at 2,469.40.þþThe Nasdaq Composite was up 11.22 points, or 0.18 percent, at 6,344.23.þþSeven of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher with material index's 0.46 percent rise leading the advancers.þþData showed that U.S. homebuilding unexpectedly fell in July as the construction of single- and multi-family homes declined.þþThe Commerce Department said housing starts declined 4.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.16 million units.þþShares of Target rose 1.2 percent after the company's profit and same-store sales beat estimates.þþUrban Outfitters rose 21.64 percent after the apparel retailer reported quarterly profit and sales that beat estimates, leading to multiple price target raises.þþAmazon was down 0.58 percent after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted the retail giant was doing ÿgreat damageÿ to tax paying retailers.þþAdvancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,920 to 587. On the Nasdaq, 1,525 issues rose and 660 fell.þþ(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
Source: NY Times
