US stocks end down as Fed minutes get digested
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U.S. stock indexes closed lower on Wednesday as investors digested minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting and awaited results from AI bellwether Nvidia.Nvidia's report is due after the closing bell. Analysts expect the chipmaker to report a jump in first-quarter revenue, according to LSEG data."The market is spinning its wheels today," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York. Losses mounted, however, ahead of the closing bell."The Fed minutes really didn't reveal anything new," he said. "They basically indicate the Fed is in a wait-and-see mode and staying the line, trying to get more clarifications on trade."U.S. President Donald Trump backed down over the weekend from his threat of 50% tariffs on imports from the European Union, driving stocks up sharply on Tuesday.Besides Nvidia, Salesforce results are due after the closing bell.Traders in options markets were bracing for industry-wide volatility, with defensive options contracts drawing heavy attention for the VanEck Semiconductor ETF , the largest semiconductor ETF.According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 31.59 points, or 0.53%, to end at 5,889.95 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 91.27 points, or 0.47%, to 19,107.89. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 237.24 points, or 0.56%, to 42,106.41.Shares of Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys were down sharply after the Financial Times reported that the Trump administration has ordered U.S. firms that offer software used to design semiconductors to stop selling their services to Chinese groups. The FT report cited people familiar with the move.According to the minutes of the Fed's May 6-7 session, U.S. central bank officials acknowledged they could face "difficult tradeoffs" in coming months in the form of rising inflation alongside rising unemployment.The S&P 500 is still down from its record closing high, reached on February 19. It fell as much as 18.9% below that level in the wake of Trump's erratic tariff announcements that have whipsawed markets for much of his second term.A poll of strategists and analysts conducted by Reuters showed that many market participants expected the benchmark index to finish the year near current levels.Shares of sportswear retailer Dick's Sporting Goods gained after its first-quarter results beat estimates.
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