US stocks open lower before release of Fed minutes

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Major indices in the US stock exchanges opened lower on Wednesday ahead of the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's last meeting.

The Dow Jones was down 107, or 0.3%, to 35,236 points at 9.41 a.m. EDT, while the S&P 500 lost 8, or 0.2%, to 4,439.

The Nasdaq fell 9, or 0.1%, to 14,644 with pharmaceutical firms Novavax and Moderna losing 2.4% each.

The Fed will release minutes from its July 27-28 meeting and investors will be looking for hints about when the central bank will start unrolling its $120 billion monthly asset purchase program.

The VIX volatility index, also dubbed the fear index, was up for the third straight day with a 2.5% gain to 18.36.

While the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes rose 1.1% to 1.272%, the dollar index was flat at 93.12.

Precious metals were mixed with gold rising to $1,786 per ounce but silver falling 0.5% to $23.53.

Oil prices recovered somewhat with Brent crude up 0.4% to $69.31 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate adding 0.2% to $66.45.