US stocks end down after Fed minutes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32814006

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(Close): Stocks were slightly down with investors seeing little in the Federal Reserve's latest minutes to alter views on when interest rates might rise.

After closing at a record high on Tuesday, the Dow Jones fell 26.99 points to 18,285.4, while the S&P 500 lost 1.98 points to 2,125.85.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.71 points to 5,071.7.

Among banks fined a total of $6bn for manipulating currency rates, Citigroup lost 0.8% and JP Morgan fell 0.79%.

Shares in home improvement retailer Lowe's fell 4.64% after its first quarter results fell short of expectations.

Southwest Airlines sank 9.09% after it said passenger revenue per available seat was expected to fall this quarter. The news pushed other airline stocks down.

While the Fed is expected to raise rates this year, the timing of the move has kept the market guessing.

Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott, said the minutes from the Fed's April meeting gave no hint "that they were going to do anything different than what the market was already prepared for... That's why the net-net was a benign impact to financial markets".