US benchmark equity indexes fell Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's May policy meeting indicated concerns among participants regarding a lack of progress on their inflation target.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.5% to 39,671. The S&P 500 dropped 0.3% to 5,307, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.2% to 16,801.5, both retreating from their record closing levels on Tuesday. Among sectors, energy and utilities saw the steepest declines, while health care led the gainers.
Members of the central bank's Federal Open Market Committee indicated earlier this month that the disinflation process was expected to take longer than previously thought, minutes from the committee's April 30-May 1 meeting showed Wednesday.
"Participants discussed maintaining the current restrictive policy stance for longer should inflation not show signs of moving sustainably toward 2% or reducing policy restraint in the event of an unexpected weakening in labor market conditions," the meeting minutes showed. "Various participants mentioned a willingness to tighten policy further should risks to inflation materialize in a way that such an action became appropriate."
At the meeting, the FOMC decided to leave its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 5.25% to 5.50% for the sixth straight time and said there's been "a lack of further progress" in bringing inflation down in recent months.
The US two-year yield rose four basis points to 4.87% Wednesday, while the 10-year rate gained 1.2 basis points to 4.43%.
In company news, Target's (TGT) fiscal Q1 earnings unexpectedly declined, while the retailer issued a downbeat bottom-line guidance at the midpoint for the ongoing three-month period. The company's shares tumbled 8%, the worst performer on the S&P 500.
Lululemon Athletica (LULU) shares dropped 7%, the steepest decline on the Nasdaq and the second-worst on the S&P 500. The athletic apparel maker said late Tuesday that Jonathan Cheung, global creative director, will drive its product design and innovation roadmap, following the departure of Chief Product Officer Sun Choe.
Analog Devices (ADI) was among the top gainers on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, up nearly 11%, following price target hikes by Piper Sandler and several others.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 1.7% to $77.32 per barrel Wednesday.
Commercial crude stockpiles in the US increased by 1.8 million barrels to 458.8 million barrels through the week ended May 17, the Energy Information Administration said. The consensus estimate on Bloomberg was for a draw of 2 million barrels.
In economic news, US existing home sales unexpectedly fell last month as home prices reached a new record high and mortgage rates climbed back over 7%, data from the National Association of Realtors showed.
Mortgage applications in the US continued their upward trend as the 30-year fixed rate on conforming loan balances declined to its lowest level in seven weeks, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.
Gold slipped 1.8% to $2,382.90 per troy ounce, while silver slumped 3.1% to $31.08 per ounce.