The US markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday as traders kept an eye on remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who said the central bank is likely to scale back its asset purchase program well before raising interest rates. Powell said ‘we will reach the time at which we will taper asset purchases when we have made substantial further progress towards our goals from last December’. He added ‘that would in all likelihood be before, well before, the time we would consider raising interest rates. We have not voted on that order but that is the sense of the guidance’. Meanwhile, the Fed released its Beige Book, which noted economic activity in the US accelerated to a moderate pace from late February to early April.
The release of the Beige Book comes two weeks ahead of the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting, which is scheduled for April 27-28. On the economic data front, Import prices in the US showed another notable increase in the month of March, according to a report released by the Labor Department. The report said import prices surged up by 1.2 percent in March after jumping by 1.3 percent in February. Street had expected import prices to climb by 1.0 percent. The Labor Department noted import prices spiked by 4.1 percent from December to March, reflecting the largest three-month increase since May of 2011.
Nasdaq fell 138.26 points or 0.99 percent to 13,857.84 and S&P 500 was down by 16.93 points or 0.41 percent to 4,124.66, while Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 53.62 points or 0.16 percent to 33,730.89.