Wall Street finishes lower as FOMC minutes disappoints

Wall Street ended lower on Wednesday as it wasn't able to hold on to the gains fueled by the strong private-sector jobs report.

Forex today: big turnaround post hawkish FOMC minutes, but why?

Fed meeting minutes revealed that some participants viewed equity prices as quite high relative to standard valuation measures and also voiced their concerns over uncertainty regarding potential changes to the fiscal policy. Also, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan further dented the sentiment by suggesting on Wednesday that the tax reform bill was taking a backseat as it would take longer to accomplish than repealing and replacing Obamacare.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 41.09 points, or 0.2%, to 20,648.15, the S&P 500 ended down 11.25 points, or 0.48%, at 2,352.95 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 34.13 points, or 0.58%, to 5,864.48.

Headlines from the U.S. session

• US unemployment rate outlook - Nomura
• No light shed on the relationship between the Fed's balance sheet and the rate adjustment cycle - BBH
• CME Group FedWatch: Market expectations for a June rate hike at 62.7%
• FOMC minutes: Fed participants 'generally preferred' to change reinvestment of both treasury and mortgage-backed securities
• US: March sees slowest growth of US service sector for six months - Markit
• US: Private sector employment increased by 263,000 - ADP