Stocks Ended Marginally Lower after Fed Minutes

U.S. stocks closed marginally lower on Wednesday in the wake of the latest minutes from the last month’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.09 points, or 0.01%, to 17,685.73. The S&P 500 was off 3.08 points, or 0.15%, to 2,048.72. The Nasdaq Composite fell 26.73 points, or 0.57%, at 4,675.71.

A number of Federal Reserve officials pushed their colleagues to say more publicly about the pace of coming rate increases, according to minutes from the October meeting released Wednesday, suggesting that the central bank still believes it is on track to raise rates next year despite low inflation and a weak global economic outlook.

Apple Inc. was ordered this week to pay $23.6 million in damages after a Texas jury found that its devices used technology patented in the 1990s by a pager company.