Roundup: U.S. stocks fall amid Fed minutes, earnings

U.S. stocks wavered and closed lower this week, as investors digested the Federal Reserve's minutes from its September meeting amid mixed earnings.

For the week, the blue-chip Dow fell 0.6 percent, and the broader S&P 500 dipped 1.0 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.5 percent.

In corporate news, Citigroup Inc. on Friday reported a net income of 3.8 billion U.S. dollars, or 1.24 dollars per share, for the third quarter of 2016, compared with 4.3 billion dollars, or 1.35 dollars per share, in the same quarter the year before.

Shares of the New York-based bank rose 0.29 percent to 48.61 dollars apiece Friday following the release of the company's better-than-expected quarterly results.

Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. fell 0.32 percent to 67.52 dollars apiece Friday despite the company delivered quarterly results that beat market expectations.

Before Tuesday's opening bell, Alcoa Inc. announced net income of 166 million U.S. dollars, or 0.33 dollar per share for the third quarter of 2016, on revenues of 5.21 billion U.S. dollars.

Shares of the U.S. aluminum giant plunged 11.42 percent to 27.91 dollars apiece Tuesday after the release of the disappointing results.

Meanwhile, Wall Street also meditated on the Federal Reserve's minutes from its September meeting and remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

According to the minutes released earlier this week, 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.

"Participants generally agreed the case for a rate hike has strengthened. Presumably this is all but one or two, like Lael Brainard, who recently said she thinks the case for preemptive hikes has diminished," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

Yellen said Friday that the Fed may need to run a "high-pressure economy" to reverse damage from the crisis that depressed output, sidelined workers and risks becoming a permanent scar, according to Reuters.

Though not addressing interest rates or immediate policy concerns directly, Yellen laid out the deepening concern at the Fed that U.S. economic potential is slipping and may need aggressive steps to rebuild it.

The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street's fear gauge, decreased 3.42 percent to end at 16.12 on Friday.

On the economic front, the Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand rose 0.3 percent in September, seasonally adjusted, beating market consensus, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday.

The U.S. Commerce Department announced Friday that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for September increased 0.6 percent from the previous month to 459.8 billion dollars, on par with market estimates.

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. Endit