Wall St. ends nearly flat; Fed minutes support

Another relatively calm day as, even though the expected debt deal with Greece was not reached today, it is fully expected that an agreement will be reached Thursday.  Meanwhile, oil took a bit of a hit again with crude down to $52 now; just last week it was back up to $60 again after a very long slump.  And the Fed once again reiterated its oft stated position that it will take its time raising interest rates, not to do until there is strong confidence that the economy is well on the road to recovery and able to handle it.  Curious, isn't it?  Even though the Fed has been completely consistent with this position for a long time, sometimes investors believe it and sometimes they don't.  When they do, the market goes up (or at least stems a downtrend) and when they don't, the market sinks.  Today they believed it, thus stemming a downturn.  The Dow only fell 17 points on the drop in energy.  Volume was adequate at 6 billion shares.

Wall St. ends nearly flat; Fed minutes support

BY CAROLINE VALETKEVITCH

DJ:    18,029.85  -17.73      NAS:    4,906.36  +7.10    S&P:   2,099.68  -0.66

NEW YORK Wed Feb 18, 2015 4:33pm EST

(Reuters) - The Dow and S&P 500 ended barely lower on Wednesday after a drop in energy shares but declines were limited by minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting, which showed policymakers are concerned about raising interest rates too soon.

Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), which fell 2.2 percent to $91.01, was the biggest drag on both theS&P 500 and Dow following an explosion and fire at an Exxon refinery near Los Angeles and a drop in crude oil prices. Also, Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) disclosed shedding a $3.74 billion investment in Exxon.

The S&P 500 .SPNY was down 1.5 percent, with U.S. crude oil CLc1 falling 2.6 percent to settle at $52.14 a barrel.

Fed policymakers expressed concern last month that raising interest rates too soon could pour cold water on the U.S. economic recovery, according to minutes from the Fed's Jan. 27-28 meeting.

"The minutes reflect our view that while the economy is growing, an interest rate liftoff is not a slam dunk at this point," said Alan Gayle, senior investment strategist at RidgeWorth Investments in Atlanta.

"Clearly, there are some more dovish members that feel the economy is still not strong enough to support steady pricing, so that is holding the Fed back from normalizing policy."

Stocks generally have risen with any sign the Fed could raise rates later rather than sooner.

An index of S&P 500 utilities .SPLRCU, which tend to do well in a low interest-rate environment, jumped 2.4 percent and was the biggest positive in the S&P 500 as bond yields declined. S&P financial shares .SPSY, which tend to benefit from a higher rate environment, declined 0.7 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 17.73 points, or 0.1 percent, to 18,029.85, theS&P 500 .SPX lost 0.66 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,099.68 and the Nasdaq Composite.IXIC added 7.10 points, or 0.14 percent, to 4,906.36.

The day's move breaks a two-session string of record closing highs for the S&P 500.

Investors also weighed developments involving Greece. The European Central Bank agreed a modest increase in emergency funding for Greek banks, putting pressure on Athens to strike a financing deal with its European partners before its lenders run out of money.

Fossil Group Inc (FOSL.O) shares sank 15.7 percent to $83.69 after the fashion accessory maker reported quarterly earnings and revenue below expectations.

Also on the earnings front, Garmin Ltd (GRMN.O) fell 10.7 percent to $50.71 after the navigation device maker gave an earnings outlook below estimates.

About 6.0 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the 7.2 billion average for the month so far, according to BATS Global Markets.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,662 to 1,403, for a 1.18-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,429 issues rose and 1,303 fell for a 1.10-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 58 new 52-week highs and two new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 83 new highs and 26 new lows.