Wall Street rises slightly as investors await decisions of Federal Reserves Meet

U.S. stocks rose sluggishly on Wednesday, as investors awaited the Federal Reserve's minutes from its latest meeting, while assessing the latest developments in the U.S.-China trade talks. Cautious signals from the Fed on further interest rate hikes last month as well hopes of progress in the trade negotiations have helped the S&P 500 climb about 18 per cent from its December lows, bringing the benchmark closer to a record high it hit in September. Minutes from the Fed's January policy meeting, due at 2:00 p.m. ET (1900 GMT), is expected to reaffirm the central bank's statement last month that it would be patient with further interest rate hikes after markets swooned late in December on fears of an economic slowdown.

"The Fed minutes is straight going to give confirmation of what we've been hearing about - a slowdown of the balance sheet runoff and the Fed becoming dovish," said Jeff Zipper, managing director for investments at U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management. Technology stocks led the way up, putting the Nasdaq on course to post its eighth day of gains, with Apple Inc rising 1.0 per cent and chip stocks climbing 1.3 per cent.

Financial stocks were largely flat ahead of the release of the minutes, but banks rose 0.20 per cent. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that trade discussions with China were going well and suggested he was open to extending the deadline to complete the negotiations, saying March 1 was not a "magical" date.

It was assumed until now that U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports would rise to 25 per cent from 10 per cent if no trade deal was reached by then. "My sense is that a deal is going to get done, but not sure if March 1 will be the date. At least the market is comfortable with the scenario that it will get done," said Zipper.

Trade-exposed stocks such as Boeing Co and Caterpillar Inc rose more than 1 per cent, boosting the Dow. At 11:24 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 11.02 points, or 0.04 per cent, at 25,902.34. The S&P 500 was up 1.83 points, or 0.07 per cent, at 2,781.59 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 15.78 points, or 0.21 per cent, at 7,502.55.

The healthcare sector fell 0.35 per cent, weighed by a 7.2 per cent fall in CVS Health Corp after the drugstore chain operator missed full-year profit forecast. Southwest Airlines Co slipped 5.4 per cent after the carrier said it would take a $60 million hit from the partial U.S. government shutdown.

The carrier dragged down shares of other airlines, sending the Dow Jones US Airlines index down 2.40 per cent. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.61-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.33-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P index recorded 25 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 74 new highs and eight new lows.