US open: Stocks mixed ahead of FOMC meeting minutes

US stocks were mixed as investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s September meeting minutes for clues on the timing on the next interest rate hike.

At 1600 BST the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1% to 18,130.04 points, the S&P 500 increased 0.07% to 2,138.26 points while the Nasdaq dropped 0.10% to 5,241.17 points.

At the same time oil prices fell with West Texas Intermediate crude down 1.4% to $50.05 per barrel and Brent crude down 1.2% to $51.78 per barrel.

Traders are looking ahead to the Fed’s minutes of the 20-21 September policy meeting when policymakers decided to keep interest rates unchanged but said they expected at least one hike later this year. The minutes will be published at 1900 BST.

Oanda’s Craig Erlam said: “Three of the 10 voting FOMC members dissented at the last meeting, all of whom are permanent voters, which would strongly suggest that a majority is not far away, not with a number of other policy makers appearing to lean that way, including chair Yellen herself.

“The minutes today could offer good insight into just how close others are to voting for a hike, what it is they want to see before doing so and just how many voters are currently on the fence. We tend to have quite a good idea of all this from the large number of appearances we now get from Fed officials, but more information is always welcome and could spark some volatility in the markets.”

Societe Generale said that overall, the risks were biased towards the hawkish side, keeping the door open for a December rate hike.

Ahead of the minutes, New York Fed President Bill Dudley said since US inflation remains low and economic expansion could last at least five years, the Fed can be "gentle" in removing monetary stimulus.

"We're at a point where the economic expansion has plenty of room to run," he said.

"Inflation is a little below our target, rather than above our target, so I think we can be quite gentle as we go in terms of gradually removing monetary policy accommodation,"

Meanwhile, Alcoa shares slipped after kicking off the third quarter earnings season with weaker-than-expected numbers.

Amazon.com nudged just a touch higher after announcing plans on Tuesday to introduce convenience stores