Wall St. mixed with Fed minutes, inflation data in focus
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Google-parent Alphabet down on potential DOJ action
Boeing falls after talks with union halted
Fed minutes due at 2:00 p.m. ET
Indexes: Dow up 0.35%, S&P 500 flat, Nasdaq down 0.25%
Updated at 9:45 a.m. ET/1345 GMT
By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Pranav Kashyap
Oct 9 (Reuters) - The main indexes were mixed in choppy trading on Wednesday as investors awaited the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting, while Alphabet shares dipped after the U.S. said it was considering breaking up Google.
Shares of Alphabet GOOGL.O were down 0.2%in early tradingafter the U.S. Department of Justice said it may ask a judge to force Google to divest parts of its business, including the Chrome browser and Android operating system, to curtail its search monopoly.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 148.23 points, or 0.35%, to 42,228.60, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.51 points, or 0.01%, to 5,751.59 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC lost 45.09 points, or 0.25%, to 18,137.82, lagging the other two main indexes.
"(This is) just a reflection of how super-sized Big Tech has become. Any uncertainty there will feature into the rest of the market," said Ben Laidler, head of equity strategy at Bradesco BBI.
Trading has been choppy this week, with investors adjusting their rate-cut expectations, seeking new catalysts for a clearer market direction. Their attention will now turn to crucial inflation data on Thursday and the upcoming third-quarter corporate earnings season.
Minutes from the Fed's September meeting, when policymakers kicked off monetary policyeasing with a 50-basis-point rate cut, are due at 2:00 p.m. ET.
"We expect the FOMC minutes and tomorrow's CPI to be reassuring and calm these market nerves around the ability of the Fed to keep cutting interest rates," Laidler said.
Commentary from a number of Fed officials including Philip Jefferson andThomas Barkin are also expected through the day.
Investors are overwhelmingly pricing in a 25-basis-point reduction in borrowing costs atthe Fed's November meeting, with some now seeing a slight chance the central bank will keep rates on hold, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Prior to the release of strong employment data last week, markets were leaning towards an outsized 50-bps cut in November.
Among single stocks, Boeing BA.N lost 3.1% aftertalks between the company and its key manufacturing union broke down.
Shares of Arcadium Lithium ALTM.N soared 30.5%after Rio Tinto RIO.AX said it would acquire the miner for $6.7 billion.
Shares of Goldman Sachs rose 1.1%, helping the Dow outperform other indexes, while Financials stocks .SPSY were the biggest S&P 500 sector gainers.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms dropped as investors continued to question if China would announce new stimulus measures.
Alibaba Group BABA.N fell 2.3%, PDD Holdings PDD.O lost 2.7%and JD.Com JD.O dropped 3.5%.
Additionally, investorswere keeping a watch onthe potential impact from Category5 Hurricane Milton as well as the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.04-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 1.3-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 29 new highs and 51 new lows.
Reporting by Lisa Mattackal and Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai
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