On Wednesday the S&P 500 pulled back from its newly set record after a meandering trading day took a late turn lower.
The benchmark index dropped 14.93 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,374.85. It was a day after the last of its pandemic-created losses were wiped out and surpassed its high of Feb. 19.
The Industrial Average of Dow Jones also gave up an earlier gain and lost 85,19, or 0.3 percent, to 27,692,88. The index of Nasdaq dropped 64.38, or 0.6%, to 11,146.46.
Indexes dropped in the afternoon after the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its most recent policy meeting.
The Central Bank Has Been One of the Main Pillars
The central bank has been one of the main pillars propping up the market.
It was after it slashed short-term interest rates to their record low. And then, it essentially promised to buy as many bonds as it takes to keep markets running smoothly.
The Fed’s minutes showed again that policymakers are finding it difficult to forecast the path of the economy, which will depend greatly on what happens with the virus.
Treasury yields also increased after the minutes revealed, among other items, that some Fed officials said attempting to set upper yield limits above ultrashort-term rates would only provide limited assistance. Some investors have been speculating that next to helping the economy could be a step the Fed would take.
The momentum has generally stayed strong throughout the stock market. Yet it’s slowed down recently after coming back in February and March from a horrific plunge of almost 34 percent.
On the other hand, trading was so boring that it took many attempts by the S&P 500 to break its record despite pulling within 1 percent of the mark a week and a half ago.
In European stock markets, the German DAX returned 0.7%. The French CAC 40 rose 0.8%, and the FTSE 100 in London added 0.6%.
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