U.S. stocks retreat after Fed minutes

U.S. stocks reversed early gains to end lower Wednesday, as Wall Street digested the minutes from the Federal Reserve's March meeting amid economic data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 41.09 points, or 0.20 percent, to 20,648.15. The S&P 500 lost 7.21 points, or 0.31 percent, to 2,352.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 34.13 points, or 0.58 percent, to 5,864.48.

The minutes showed Fed officials want to start unwinding the central bank's massive 4.5-trillion-U.S.-dollar balance sheet later this year.

According to the minutes, policymakers reaffirmed the approach to balance sheet normalization articulated in the (Federal Open Market) Committee's Policy Normalization Principles and Plans announced in September 2014.

"Provided that the economy continued to perform about as expected, most participants anticipated that gradual increases in the federal funds rate would continue and judged that a change to the Committee's reinvestment policy would likely be appropriate later this year," the minutes said.

Analysts said that unwinding the balance sheet is significant both because of its sheer size and the impact it could have on markets as the move itself would amount to a rate hike.

On the economic front, U.S. private sector employment increased by 263,000 jobs from February to March, on a seasonally adjusted basis, well above the market consensus of 185,000, according to the March ADP National Employment Report released Wednesday.

The ADP figure is widely seen as a pre-indicator for the non-farm payrolls report due out on Friday. Analysts said the nonfarm jobs might also be better than expected.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Non-Manufacturing Index registered 55.2 percent in March, below market expectations of 57, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said in its monthly survey Wednesday. Enditem