Department Stores, Luxury Sales, Warehouse Club: 3 Things to Watch By Investing.com – Investing.com

Department Stores, Luxury Sales, Warehouse Club: 3 Things to Watch By Investing.com – Investing.com

© Reuters.

By Dhirendra Tripathi

Investing.com -- Stocks sold off after Wednesday's release of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes, which revealed the central bank could start tapering its bond buying program later this year.

The news comes as a number of large retailers report their earnings for the recent quarter, largely beating expectations in some cases despite difficult comparisons to last year.

The Fed will base its decision largely on its assessment of the health of the labor market, and it indicated there is still some ground to cover. "Most participants judged that the Committee's standard of 'substantial further progress' toward the maximum-employment goal had not yet been met," according to the Fed's minutes.

Next week, members of the Fed will gather in Jackson Hole, Wyo., for an annual symposium, where Chair Jerome Powell is expected to add some details to the evolving tapering plans. 

Oil prices weakened after new data that showed a larger-than-expected decline in weekly crude inventories, but an unexpected build in gasoline inventories. U.S. Crude inventories dropped by 3.234 million barrels last week, compared with analysts' expectations for a draw of 1.055 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

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