NEW YORK — The U.S. stock market edged mostly lower Wednesday, easing back from its latest all-time highs.
The markets barely budged following the midafternoon release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January meeting. The transcript showed that policymakers were less likely to raise interest rates in June than investors previously thought.
The decline follows two straight days of record closing highs for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.
“The market had really gathered steam around a June tightening date, the minutes seem to have walked that back a bit,” said David Lafferty, chief market strategist at Natixis Global Asset Management.
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 17.73 points, or 0.1 percent, to 18,029.85. The S&P 500 eased 0.7 point, or 0.03 percent, to 2,099.68. The index closed at an all-time high of 2,100.34 on Tuesday.
The Nasdaq composite rose 7.10 points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,906.36.
Major stock indexes opened lower early Wednesday. Energy stocks declined as the price of oil fell amid speculation that a recent rally in crude was excessive.
The price of benchmark U.S. crude, which had been rising last week, fell $1.39 to $52.14 a barrel Wednesday. The price of oil has jumped 16 percent since bottoming out at the end of January after a seven-month slump. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, fell $2 to $60.53 a barrel.
Investors hammered Fossil’s shares after the retailer reported disappointing fourth-quarter earnings report and outlook. The stock fell $15.63, or 15.7 percent, to $83.69.
All told, four of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 ended lower. Energy stocks slumped the most, declining 1.5 percent. Utilities notched the biggest gain at 2.4 percent.
The S&P 500 has bounced back after a weak start to the year, as a rebound in the price of oil has boosted energy stocks and returned the index to all-time highs. Strong reports on hiring and company earnings have encouraged investors.
Most companies in the S&P 500 index have now reported their results for the fourth quarter. Earnings are forecast to rise 7.6 percent after all the results are in, according to S&P Capital IQ. That compares with growth of 9.2 percent in the third quarter and a rate of 4.9 percent in the same period a year earlier.
