NEW YORK, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday as investors awaited the release of a meeting minute from the Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 166.97 points, or 0.67 percent, to 24,797.78. The S&P 500 decreased 14.93 points, or 0.55 percent, to 2,701.33. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 16.08 points, or 0.22 percent, to 7,218.23.
The U.S. central bank released the minutes from its January meeting at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. According to the minutes, the Fed officials see increased economic growth and an uptick in inflation as justification to continue to raise interest rates gradually.
After the news came out, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield spiked to as high as 2.956 percent. Major stock indices rose sharply with the Dow jumping more than 300 points before paring gains completely.
On the economic front, U.S. manufacturers reported a strong upturn in business conditions during February, which continued the positive trend seen at the start of this year.
The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit Flash U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 55.9 in February from January's 53.8, the fastest improvement in overall business conditions since October 2014.
Meanwhile, U.S. home sales fell unexpectedly for a second consecutive month in January and experienced their largest decline on an annual basis over three years, according to the National Association of Realtors on Wednesday. All major regions saw monthly and annual sales declines last month.
The association said the existing home sales dropped 3.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.38 million units last month.
For Chinese companies listed in the United States, shares of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba gained 0.68 percent to settle at 188.46 dollars, while shares of another Chinese technology company Baidu increased 0.61 percent to close at 246.92 dollars.
