Wall Street opens mostly lower ahead of Fed's minutes

US stock indices opened the third session of the week mixed but still near record highs, with Hewlett-Packard leading the decline in the tech sector, which was hurt after HP CEO Meg Whitman announced she will resign next February after six years of leading the tech giant, bashing the company's shares down over 7%. 

The tech sector led Wall Street to record highs on Tuesday before steep drops today on profit-taking, while the energy sector gained ground after the EIA report showed a larger-than-expected inventory drawdown last week, curbing Wall Street's losses today. 

Otherwise, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said earlier on Wednesday that US inflation remains under the target, but it's still suitable for the Fed to carry on policy tightening, raising the chances of a third rate hike in December. 

Earlier US data showed durable goods order fell 1.2% in October, missing expectations of a 0.4% rise, and compared to September's 2.0% rise, while core orders, excluding transportation, rose 0.4% in line with expectations, while down from September's 0.7% growth. 

US unemployment claims fell to 239 thousand in the week ending November 18, besting expectations of a drop to 241K, and compared to the previous reading's 252K, revised higher from 249K. 

The University of Michigan's final reading of the Consumer Sentiment survey rose to 98.5 from the preliminary reading of 97.8, compared to 100.7 in October, while the economic conditions and outlook indicators fell, as inflation outlook varied for one and five years. 

The Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its last policy meeting. at which policymakers voted to hold interest rates unchanged between 1.00% and 1.2%, while pointing to strong US growth and improvement in the labor sector, and downplaying concerns about the recent hurricanes that hit the US, and asserting their work to normalize the balance sheet, an effort that started in October. 

As of 04:59 GMT, Standard and Poor's 500 shed 0.01%, or 0.35 points to 2,598.68, while Dow Jones advanced 0.08%, or 19.40 points to 23,571.43.

Tech-heavy NASDAQ added 0.08%, or 5.37 points to 6,867.85.