U.S. market indexes were higher on Wednesday after the Fed released its July Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes. For the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 18573.94 for a gain of 21.92 points or 0.12 percent. The S&P 500 was also higher, closing at 2182.22 for a gain of 4.07 points or 0.19 percent. The Nasdaq Composite closed higher at 5228.66 for a gain of 1.55 points or 0.03 percent. The VIX Volatility Index was lower for the day at 12.17 for a loss of -0.47 points or -3.72 percent.

Wednesday’s Market Movers

A number of factors influenced market trading on Wednesday. The MBA Mortgage Applications report showed mortgage applications down 4 percent from the previous week. The EIA Petroleum Status report showed oil inventories down 2.5 million barrels from the previous week. Oil prices gained just slightly with WTI crude up 0.6 percent to $46.86.

The July FOMC meeting minutes were the main focus for the day. They showed that Fed officials felt the economy was strengthening but that there wasn’t an immediate need for a rate increase. This has likely pushed rate increase expectations to December. The market reacted favorably to this on Wednesday with the major indexes ending the day higher.

 Stocks trading actively for the day included the following:

Bank of America
Chesapeake Energy Corp.
Cisco
AT&T
Frontier Communications Corp.
Staples
Apple
Ford
Southern Co.

In the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the following stocks led gains for the day:

Gains (percent)
Pfizer Inc              1.01
3M Co   0.97
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co     0.87
Johnson & Johnson         0.81
Verizon Communications Inc       0.78
Chevron Corp    0.66
American Express Co      0.58

Top sectors for the broad market were utilities and financial. S&P 500 technology stocks overall were just slightly lower for the day. Stocks leading gains and losses in technology included the following:

Gains (percent)
Liberty Media Corp          9.53
Discovery Communications Inc C               2.73
Electronic Arts Inc            2.2
Losses (percent)
Liberty Interactive Corp Class A  -3.65
NVIDIA Corp       -2.32
Western Digital Corp      -2.29

In commodities, gold traded higher as evidenced by the SPDR Gold Trust which reported a gain of 0.04 points or 0.03 percent. The dollar was lower for the day as the U.S. Dollar Index was down -0.03 points or -0.03 percent at 94.75.

Small-Cap Stocks

In small-caps, the Russell 2000 Index was lower at 1227.68 for a loss of -3.45 points or -0.28 percent. The S&P 600 Small-Cap Index was lower at 743.88 for a loss of -1.83 points or -0.25 percent. The Dow Jones Small-Cap Growth TSM Index was lower at 7490.05 for a loss of -34.72 points or -0.46 percent. The Dow Jones Small-Cap Value TSM Index was higher at 8704.73 for a gain of 5.75 points or 0.07 percent.

Other Notable Indexes

Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 1550.28 for a loss of -3.51 points or -0.23 percent; the S&P 100 Index at 966.49 for a gain of 1.93 points or 0.20 percent; the Russell 3000 Index at 1288.51 for a gain of 1.41 points or 0.11 percent; the Russell 1000 Index at 1208.11 for a gain of 1.70 points or 0.14 percent; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index at 619.90 for a gain of 3.23 points or 0.52 percent.