Stocks Little-changed As Investors Shrug Off Fed Minutes

U.S. stocks remained lower Wednesday after the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's December meeting showed some policy makers had reservations about raising interest rates. The main indexes extended losses immediately after the minutes were released at 2 p.m. Eastern, but quickly trimmed their losses to return to their levels ahead of the release. The S&P 500 was down 23 points, or 1.1% at 1,993. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 222 points, or 1.3%, at 16,934. The Nasdaq Composite was down 54 points, or 1.1%, at 4,837.84. Steve Chiavarone, associate portfolio manager at Federated Investors, said the reservations were understandable. "When you're moving off the zero line, you really don't want to have to go back to zero," he said. Fed policy makers voted unanimously to raise rates in December, the first hike in nearly a decade.