Wall Street ends largely lower as eyes fixed on Fed's minutes

US stock indices closed mixed on Tuesday following an array of data from America, the world's largest economy, which showed retail sales rose for the first time in three months past expectations in July. 

Now markets await the release of the Federal Reserve's minutes of the July 25-26 meeting on Wednesday as investors assess the chances of a third rate hike this year and tightening of monetary policy, underpinning the finance sector, which offset Wall Street's utility-led losses. 

Dow Jones edged up 0.02%, or 5.28 points to 21,998.99, while Standard and Poor's 500 shed 0.05%, or 1.23 points to 2,464.61. NASDAQ Composite declined 0.11%, or 7.22 points to 6,333.01. 

Gold futures due on December 16 tumbled 0.95% to $1,278.10 an ounce from the opening of $1,290.40, while the dollar index rose 0.46% to 93.84 from the opening of 93.41, marking the highest since July 26. 

Otherwise, US crude futures due on September 15 advanced 0.42% to $47.79 a barrel from the opening of $47.59, while Brent crude futures due on October 15 added 0.65% to $51.06 a barrel from the opening of $51.39.