Materials Flat Ahead of Earnings Season -- Materials Roundup

Shares of commodities producers were more or less flat as traders hedged on the outlook for earnings and interest rates.

In minutes from their September meeting, several Federal Reserve officials said their decision on another rate move this year "would depend importantly on whether the economic data in coming months increased their confidence that inflation was moving up toward the committee's symmetric 2% objective."

The materials sector could see surprisingly strong earnings this quarter "only because you've seen such a sharp appreciation in some of the materials prices" such as copper and zinc, said Oliver Pursche, chief market strategist at broker dealer Bruderman Brothers.

Car makers said Wednesday that they were attempting to identify vehicles containing aluminum supplied by Kobe Steel after the Japanese company on Sunday said it had doctored product-quality paperwork.

-Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 11, 2017 16:33 ET (20:33 GMT)