U.S. stocks decline after Fed minutes

U.S. stocks trimmed part of early losses to end mildly lower Thursday, as Wall Street continued to digest the Federal Reserve's minutes from its September meeting.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 45.26 points, or 0.25 percent, to 18,098.94. The S&P 500 lost 6.63 points, or 0.31 percent, to 2,132.55. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 25.69 points, or 0.49 percent, to 5,213.33.

According to the minutes released Wednesday afternoon, policy makers generally agreed that the case for an increase in the policy rate had strengthened.

"The Committee agreed that, in determining the timing and size of future adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate, it would assess realized and expected economic conditions relative to its objectives of maximum employment and 2 percent inflation," the minutes said.

The market is largely anticipating the Fed to raise interest rates later this year. Traders have expected a more-than 65 percent rate hike in December, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

On the economic front, in the week ending Oct. 8, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 246,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised level, announced the U.S. Labor Department Thursday.

The four-week moving average was 249,250, a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since Nov. 3, 1973 when it was 244,000.

In a separate report, the department said that in September prices for U.S. imports increased 0.1 percent following a 0.2-percent decline the previous month, while U.S. export prices rose 0.3 percent after decreasing 0.8 percent in August.

Meanwhile, oil prices were also in focus, which reversed early losses to settle higher Thursday, giving some support to the stock market. Enditem