US open: Stocks climb ahead of FOMC minutes

US equity markets climbed on Wednesday, with the Dow moving towards the elusive 20,000 mark ahead of the minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting, while the dollar slipped.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.16% to 19,912.86, the S&P 500 rose 0.34% to 2,265.45 and the Nasdaq increased 0.44% to 5,453.12 at 1459 GMT.

At the last Fed meeting in December, the central bank hiked interest rates by 25 basis points, the second time in a decade, to a target range between 0.5% and 0.75%, and said there would be three further hikes in 2017.

The FOMC minutes will be published at 1900 GMT.

Naeem Aslam, chief markets analyst at Think Markets, said investors are looking to the Fed minutes to see if they shine a light on the tax reforms and fiscal spending that president-elect Donald Trump has promised.

“We believe that the minutes may show a very neutral and flexible approach as the Fed does not want to give the wrong signal to the market. Having said that, it is equally important, that the Fed guides the market, that it has the right tools to handle any situation.”

Meanwhile, oil prices steadied following big swings on Tuesday, as investors were hopeful that OPEC members will stick to their deal to cut output.

Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate were flat at 0.01% to $55.47 and $52.31 a barrel, respectively.

Gold on Comex was up 0.24% to 1,164.80 per troy ounce.

The dollar was down 0.39% versus sterling to 0.8140, fell 0.56% against the euro to 0.9557, and shaved off 0.42% versus the yen to 117.25.

In corporate news, women’s health company Agile Therapeutics tanked 60.8% after it announced positive results late on Tuesday from a study of its Twirla contraceptive patch, but said 51.4% of participants had to discontinue the study.

Electric car maker Tesla Motors rose 1.33% despite saying late on Tuesday it had experienced production challenges in the fourth quarter.

Hilton Worldwide Holdings surged 5.18% after its stock traded for the first time as a separate entity to its time-share business, now named Hilton Grand Vacations.

General Motors advanced 3.53% on news that it sales were up 10% in December to 319,108 automobiles. While Ford Motors Company was up 2.86% after it cancelled plans on Tuesday for a $1.6bn plant in Mexico, instead investing $700m to expand its factory in Michigan. Trump had criticised the carmaker’s plans to move production to Mexico within three years.