US stocks unchanged, as investors await clues from Fed policy meeting

On Wednesday, U.S. stock futures were little changed, as investors anticipated the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting, says The Wall Street Journal.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost one point to 18000.

S&P 500 futures fell two points, or 0.1%, to 2094.

Nasdaq-100 futures added one point to 4383.

However, changes in stock futures do not always precisely predict moves in the stock market after the opening bell.

Today's attention will mostly be dominated by the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January policy meeting, due at 2 p.m. EST.

On Wednesday market players will receive several economic readings. The producer-price index is expected to fall 0.4% in January, according to economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. At the same time, housing starts are expected to decline 1.7% in January to 1.07 million.

Tuesday brought gains in the stocks. The S&P 500 added 0.2% to 2100.34, hitting a fresh record. The Dow industrials rose 0.2% to 18047.58, a high for the year.

Recently, major stock indexes have pushed to or near record highs, recovering ground from a turbulent January. The S&P has notched two record closes this year, and the Dow remains just below its all-time closing high of 18053.71.

Part of the rebound stems from corporate earnings that have come in better than initially feared, with profits at S&P 500 companies on track to rise 4.1% from a year ago, according to FactSet.

In earnings news, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. said fourth-quarter revenue rose 7%, beating expectations. Still, the hotel company gave a soft earnings outlook for 2015. Shares fell 1.9% premarket.

European stocks rose broadly, with France’s CAC 40 gaining 0.8% and Germany’s DAX rising 0.5%. Greece will seek an extension to its rescue deal from the rest of the eurozone on Thursday. An extension would prevent Greece’s current bailout from expiring at the end of February and give it time to reach a new agreement.

As of commodities, gold futures lost 0.2% to $1205.70 an ounce. Crude-oil futures fell 1.8% to $52.55 a barrel.

Treasury prices rose slightly, pushing the 10-year yield down to 2.133% from 2.141% on Tuesday.