Stocks Close Red After Fed Minutes

Stocks finished near session lows in volatile trading today, with the Nasdaq snapping an eight-day winning streak, as investors digested minutes from the Fed’s latest policy meeting.

Federal Reserve officials weighed whether it might be time to drop the notion that a 6.5 percent unemployment rate would be enough to consider raising rates, according to the latest meeting minutes.

The Fed Open Market Committee voted at the January meeting to reduce the pace of its monthly bond-buying program by another $10 billion to $65 billion a month.

On the economic front, the Commerce Department said housing starts sank 16 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 880,000 units. The rate was the lowest since September. It was also the largest percentage drop in three years. The news came a day after home builder sentiment dropped 10 points, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ monthly sentiment index, logging its biggest drop in the history of the survey, which started in 1985.

Separately, U.S. producer prices rose for a second straight month in January, pushed up by an increase in the cost of goods, but there was little sign of a broad pick-up in inflation pressures at the factory gate.

Meanwhile, natural gas futures rose to $6 per million British thermal units, hitting its highest level since December 2008, amid forecasts for continued cold weather across the U.S. that will further drive heating demand and deplete natural gas supplies.

Overseas, investors will be watching developments amid unrest in Ukraine.

The European Union called an extraordinary meeting of its foreign ministers on Thursday as the violence in Ukraine escalates, with the bloc expected to impose sanctions on those responsible for the bloodshed in Kiev. President Barack Obama condemned the violence, warning the government that “there will be consequences” if people step over the line.

Asian markets ended mostly with gains, except for Japan’s Nikkei, which dipped by 0.5%.