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Target earnings and sales top expectations

U.S. stock benchmarks were tilting higher late-morning Wednesday, paring earlier declines, as investors awaited minutes of the Federal Reserve's July policy meeting a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 index broke a streak of five straight record finishes.

Investors will also hear from St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard, who will be interviewed by MarketWatch at noon Eastern Time.

What are major indexes doing?

On Tuesday, the Dow (DJIA) fell 282.12 points, or 0.8%, while the S&P 500 declined 0.7%, retreating from record levels after data showed a larger-than-expected drop in July retail sales. The NASDAQ dropped 0.9%.

What's driving the market?

Investors will garner some insights from policy makers via a midday interview with Bullard followed by the minutes of the Federal Reserve's July 27-28 policy meeting due at 2 p.m. The minutes are likely to be pored over for clues to the timing of when the central bank will lay out a timetable for tapering its monthly asset purchases of $120 billion in Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities.

News reports earlier this week said policy makers were nearing an agreement to begin scaling back purchases by November, with The Wall Street Journal reporting some policy makers were looking to end purchases by mid-2022.

A formal announcement on tapering is expected at either next week's symposium on monetary policy in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, or the Fed's September meeting.

Markets have been wobbly since a string of record closes for the S&P 500 index and the Dow, representing a notable comeback for equities that had looked wounded by questions about the impact of the spread of the coronavirus delta variant in the world's two largest economies, the U.S. and China.

Monetary policy uncertainty, questions about corporate earnings growth in coming quarters, and brewing troubles in the Middle East, highlighted by the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, has created some headwinds for bullish investors.

Still, some note that "it is quite impressive that U.S. markets are still within touching distance from record highs, defying an imminent withdrawal of Fed liquidity as well as a worsening delta outbreak in America and Asia, even with valuations being so stretched," wrote Marios Hadjikyriacos, senior investment analyst at XM, in a note.

"This resilience might boil down to expectations that the Fed will be infinitely cautious in reining back stimulus and that Congress will put a floor under economic growth by delivering another multi-trillion round of spending," he said.

"Monetary policy will still be super-loose after tapering and the fiscal taps aren't closing."

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In U.S. economic data Wednesday, home builders started construction. Meanwhile, permitting for new homes occurred at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.64 million, up 2.6% from June and 6% from a year ago.

In COVID news, the Biden administration on Wednesday authorized that most Americans, as soon as this Friday, can get a COVID-19 booster shot eight months after being fully vaccinated.

The news comes as the daily average of new cases was up 52% from two weeks ago, and 4.5 times the average of 31,138 a month ago, according to a New York Times tracker. The daily average of deaths slipped to 696 on Tuesday from 704 on Monday, while hospitalizations increased to 83,291 from 82,519 on Monday, the most since Feb. 11.

-William Watts

Which companies are in focus?

How are other assets faring?

$(END)$ Dow Jones Newswires

August 18, 2021 10:49 ET (14:49 GMT)