Stocks Closed Higher after Fed Minutes

U.S. stocks closed modestly higher on Wednesday after the FOMC minutes revealed that policy-makers decided to end the Fed’s bond purchases by October if the economy stays on track. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 78.99 points, or 0.47%, to 16,985.61. The S&P 500 gained 9.12 points, or 0.46%, to 1,972.83. The Nasdaq Composite added 27.57 points, or 0.63%, to 4,419.03.

The Federal Reserve has begun detailing how it plans to ease the U.S. economy out of an era of loose monetary
policy, indicating it will end its asset purchases in October and appearing near agreement on a plan to manage
interest rates in the future, according to minutes of the last Fed policy meeting.

New data released Wednesday showed U.S. productivity growth was the worst since the recession. And that’s not
entirely bad news. On this measure, productivity grew just 0.3% in 2013. That’s the worst showing since the 0.3%
decline in 2009.

Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) did not expect to pay as much as $7 billion to settle a current legal spat with the US
Department of Justice, Andrew Grossman said in a recent discussion on Wall Street Journal Live.