Wednesday’s session ended in red territory. Early gains reversed as the session progressed. Stocks slipped amid the release of home sales data and comments from the Federal Reserve. The National Association of Realtors said existing-home sales increased 0.6% to an annual rate of 4.97 million in April from an upwardly revised 4.94 million in March. Economists were expecting a rate of 4.99 million sales. Meanwhile, minutes from the latest FOMC meeting were issued earlier today. A number of Federal Reserve officials said more progress in the labor market is needed before deciding to reduce the pace of asset purchases while other officials said they were willing to curtail bond buying as early as the next meeting on June 17-18 if economic reports show “evidence of sufficiently strong and sustained growth.” Elsewhere, Target released quarterly data. The discount retailer earned $498 million, or 77 cents per share, in the first quarter. The results were down from $697 million, or $1.04 per share, a year ago.
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