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Fed minutes said almost all agreed to 0.25% hike last time
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Need to control inflation would likely mean further hikes
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Indexes up: Dow 0.01%, S&P 0.16%, Nasdaq 0.4%
(Adds comments; updates prices, details)
By Johann M Cherian and David French
Feb 22 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes held
steady on Wednesday in the wake of the publication of the
minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting.
Minutes from the Fed's Jan. 31-Feb. 1 meeting said that
"almost all" Fed officials agreed to slow the pace of increases
in interest rates to a quarter of a percentage point.
There was also solid backing for the belief that the risks
of high inflation remained a "key factor" that would shape
monetary policy and further rate hikes would be necessary until
it was controlled.
After choppy trading for much of the day, the main benchmark
indexes went into the minutes' release holding slight gains.
These advances were held after the Fed's latest commentary was
released.
By 2:12 p.m. EST (1912 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial
Average rose 4.54 points, or 0.01%, to 33,134.13, the S&P
500 gained 6.22 points, or 0.16%, to 4,003.56 and the
Nasdaq Composite added 45.91 points, or 0.4%, to
11,538.21.
(Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Medha Singh in Bengaluru and
David French in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
