(Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended marginally lower on Wednesday after Wall Street saw little in the minutes from last month's Federal Reserve meeting to alter expectations of when the central bank will raise interest rates.
Following the minutes' release, the Dow and S&P 500 pushed into record territory before giving up their gains.Officials at the Fed's April policy meeting believed it would be premature to raise interest rates in June and that a bump in inflation was being offset by a weaker labor market and softer data, according to the minutes."They didn't give much tangible evidence that they were going to do anything different than what the market was already prepared for, and I think that's why the net-net was a benign impact to financial markets," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia. The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 26.99 points, or 0.15 percent, to end at 18,285.4. The S&P 500 <.spx> lost 1.98 points, or 0.09 percent, to 2,125.85 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 1.71 points, or 0.03 percent, to end at 5,071.74.The Dow had closed at record highs in the previous two sessions and on Wednesday was briefly on track for another all-time high close. The S&P, also near record highs, is now trading at 17 times expected earnings, compared to its 10-year median of 15.Five of the 10 major S&P 500 indexes were lower on Wednesday, led down by a 0.37 percent decline in the industrials index <.splrci>. Southwest Airlines