Roundup: U.S. stocks end higher amid Fed minutes, diving oil

U.S. stocks posted modest gains Wednesday, as investors were digesting minutes of the Federal Reserve's March policy meeting released in the afternoon.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 26.95 points, or 0.15 percent, to 17,902.37. The S&P 500 increased 5.56 points, or 0.27 percent, to 2,081.89. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 40.59 points, or 0.83 percent, to 4,950.82.

According to the minutes, Fed policymakers had big divergences on the first rate hike. Several Fed officials thought that the U.S. central bank would be able to raise interest rates in June, and others thought a rate hike wouldn't be warranted until later in the year, while a couple even argued that the economy probably wouldn't be ready for tighter policy until 2016.

The Fed minutes also showed that in its March policy discussion, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members agreed to remove " patient" from the statement because they did not expect to raise rates in April, but they agreed they would likely raise rates "in June or at a subsequent meeting."

"The committee continues to believe inflation will rise to 2 percent in the medium term. That's important, because tightening depends on this confidence, along with further tightening of labor markets," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

Oil prices plunged Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported weekly crude inventories rose more than expected by 10.9 million barrels, with both the U.S. oil and Brent crude tanking over 6 percent.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery lost 3.56 dollars to settle at 50.42 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Dragged by tumbling oil prices, energy sector, the biggest laggard among the S&P 500's 10 sectors, declined more than 1 percent Wednesday.

Alcoa kicked off corporate earnings season Wednesday. After the closing bell, the company reported its net income for the first quarter of 2015 came out at 195 million U.S. dollars, or 0.14 dollar per share, missing market consensus. Its shares fell in after-hours trading.

Many analysts expected that the overall earnings for the first quarter of 2015 would be hurt by the stronger dollar and lower oil prices.

The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street's fear gauge, decreased 5.41 percent to end at 13.98 Wednesday.

In other markets, the dollar declined against most major currencies. In late New York trading, the euro declined to 1.0799 dollars from 1.0831 dollars in the previous session, while the dollar bought 119.99 Japanese yen, lower than 120.37 yen of the previous session.

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell. The most active gold contract for June delivery lost 7.5 dollars, or 0.62 percent, to settle at 1,203.10 dollars per ounce. Endite