U.S. stocks open higher ahead of Fed minutes

U.S. stocks opened higher on Wednesday, as investors were awaiting the minutes of the Federal Reserve' s March policy meeting scheduled for release in the afternoon.

The minutes were expected to give more clues about the timing of the rate hike. After its March policy meeting, the Fed dropped the pledge to be "patient" in beginning to raise interest rates from a statement, which analysts saw as a gesture to pave the way for an interest rate hike.

"Today' s Fed minutes could be the highlight in an otherwise slow news week. The FOMC' s fed funds target as depicted by the dot plot tumbled by about 100bp in 2016, and so far the only explanation is St. Louis Fed President Bullard' s assertion the shift reflects the Fed' s decision not to raise rates in March," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

Alcoa kicks off corporate earnings season, with its first quarter earnings expected after Wednesday' s closing bell. Many analysts expected that the overall earnings for the first quarter of 2015 would be hurt by the stronger dollar and lower oil prices.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 28.39 points, or 0.16 percent, to 17,903.81. The S&P 500 added 3.03 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,079.36. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 8.52 points, or 0.17 percent, to 4,918.75.

U.S. stocks ended slightly lower after wavering in a tight range above flatline in most of the session Tuesday, as investors were assessing a strong U.S. dollar against an across-the-board stock surge around the world. Endi