Wall Street Moderates Sharp Falls After Fed Minutes

The minutes, released Wednesday, did not indicate a clear trend among Fed officials in favor of a smaller rate hike — half a percentage point.– Or a third consecutive increase of 75 basis points at the next meeting on September 20 and 21, but an insistence that it depends on the performance of inflation and the economy.

For the Fed to slow the pace of rate hikes, inflation reports due out before the next meeting should confirm that price increases have peaked and are now on the decline.

The earnings reports of retailers have been disparate so far this week, with Target Corp falling a two% after reporting a 90% drop in the quarterly profit because your customers affected by inflation curbed spending on discretionary goods.

Data showed that US retail sales remained unchanged in Julywhen falling gasoline prices hit gas station bills, but consumer spending appeared to hold up, which could further mitigate fears that the economy is already in a recession.

“We need to see a real decline in inflation”said Brian Overby, senior market strategist at Ally. “The retail market space, since earnings were released this week, does not confirm the fact that inflation has peaked.”

Within the technological and high-growth stocks with extremely high setbacks, the Amazon.com Inc (-2.5%) Y Nvidia Corp (-3.4%) when the returns of the Treasury bonds rise for the second consecutive session.

Also, nine of the top 11 S&P 500 sectors fallwith communication services and consumer discretionary leading the losses.

Attention was focused on the publication of the minutes of the July meeting of the Federal Reserve, that could give clues about the size of new rises in interest rates after its authorities insisted that they will continue raising rates until inflation is under control.