Wall Street mostly fell after the Fed released the minutes

 Wall Street mostly fell after the Fed released the minutes

Stocks on Wall Street closed mostly lower on Wednesday (Thursday morning GMT ) , after the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting showed most Fed policymakers think the U.S. economy can continue to reduce monetary stimulus .

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 68.20 points ( 0.41 percent ) to close at 16462.74 , AFP reported .

The broad-based S & P 500 slightly decreased 0.39 points ( 0.02 percent ) to finish at 1837.49 while the Nasdaq composite index rose 12.43 points ( 0.30 percent) to 4165.61 .

Minutes of the Fed 's policy meeting December 17 to 18 showed that " most of the " policy makers " have become more confident " that the labor market conditions will continue to improve despite the Fed cut its monetary stimulus .

Minutes of a discussion document before the Fed announced on Dec. 18 to cut its asset purchase of 10 billion dollars to 75 billion dollars per month starting in January .

Michael James , managing director of stock trading at Wedbush Securities , said investors worried after the start of the market in 2014 " lukewarm " after big gains in 2013 . Some investors are also concerned about the reduction in the Fed's stimulus , he said .

"There is a concern that lingers on the market 's ability to sustain make a profit after last year , " said James .

" Now , what is the market - cries shouted for clarity . We will be a little clearer on Friday morning ( 10/1 ) after the jobs report and a little more clarity on next week after we have slate ( slate ) is more complete than corporate earnings - company S & P 500 . "

Ford Motor jumped 1.1 percent after chief executive Alan Mulally reportedly said that he intends to stay at Ford . Mulally has been widely discussed as a top candidate for the post of chief executive at Microsoft . Dow component Microsoft fell 1.8 percent .

Pharmaceutical company Forest Laboratories jumped 17.9 percent after it announced the acquisition of 2.9 billion U.S. dollars of private Aptalis , which specializes in the treatment of gastrointestinal and cystic fibrosis .

Chip maker Micron Technology jumped 9.9 percent after reporting earnings 77 cents per share compared with expectations of 50 cents per share . SanDisk , another chip maker , rose 6.0 percent .

U.S. pharmaceutical distributor McKesson jumped 4.9 percent following a report that it may sweeten its offer of 8.3 billion dollars to acquire German company Celesio .

Citigroup rose 1.2 percent after Credit Suisse states are at the top of the bank among the big U.S. banks due to better earnings quality and have the potential for greater steps to return capital to shareholders .

Bond prices fell . The yield on U.S. 10-year bonds rose to 2.99 percent from 2.94 percent on Tuesday , while the 30 - year bond rose to 3.90 percent from 3.88 percent . Prices and bond yields move inversely .