US: Stocks end modestly lower as oil-linked shares tumble

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks finished modestly lower on Wednesday, with oil-related equities diving as Federal Reserve minutes showed the US central bank inching closer to shifting monetary policy.

Dow members Chevron, midsized petroleum producer Apache and oil services titan Halliburton all fell around three per cent or more as oil prices slid amid worries over weakening demand in India and other markets ravaged by Covid-19.

Meanwhile, Fed minutes showed some officials believe the US economy may soon be healthy enough to taper asset purchases, one of the first signs of a shift in the central bank's easy money policies.

"Thinking about, thinking about tapering," said a note from Oxford Economics that describes the Fed's deliberate moves towards a shift. The firm predicted that the Fed would formally change course in August.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.5 per cent at 33,896.04, more than 400 points above session lows.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.3 per cent to 4,115.68, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Index slipped less than 0.1 per cent to 13,299.74.

Major indices have now fallen the last three sessions, with concerns about excessive valuations adding to the inflation worries. Some analysts see the drop as evidence of profit taking.

Among individual companies, Target surged 6.1 per cent after the big-box retailer reported better-than-expected profits on a 23 per cent jump in revenues. Comparable store sales surged 18 per cent.

But rival retailer Lowe's dropped 1.1 per cent and TJX Companies dove 5.3 per cent following earnings releases.

AFP