All three major U.S. stock indexes closed marginally down, with the Nasdaq down the most ahead of Nvidia’s results

U.S. stocks dropped on Tuesday and gold hit a two-week high while minutes from the Fed’s most recent meeting showed the central bank is “in a position to proceed carefully.”

All three major U.S. stock indexes closed marginally down, with the tech-savvy Nasdaq down the most ahead of Nvidia’s results after the closing bell. The chipmaker forecast Q4 revenue above estimates. Its shares were last marginally down in extended trading.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both cut five-day winning streaks.

We have had a very sharp rally, and some profit-taking was probably overdue, said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist Ingalls & Snyder in New York. A lot of traders want to take money off the table on a day like today ahead of the holiday.

The Federal Reserve’s minutes from its October 31-November 1 meeting showed the policy makers struggling with conflicting signals and agreeing to continue with caution after voting to leave the Fed funds target rate at 5.25 per cent-5.50 per cent.

The minutes “confirm the statement from the last meeting and (Chairman Jerome) Powell’s news conference afterward that the Fed is likely on hold for now,” Ghriskey said. If inflation re-accelerated they would likely have to act, but absent that, we are in a period of higher-for-longer rates and we take them at their word for that.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 62.75 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 35,088.29, the S&P 500 shed 9.19 points, or 0.20 per cent, to 4,538.19 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 84.55 points, or 0.59 per cent, to 14,199.98.

European shares ended marginally down as banking stocks weighed ahead of the Fed minutes release.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index shed 0.09 per cent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe lost 0.18 per cent.

Emerging market stocks added 0.25 per cent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ended 0.42 per cent higher, while Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.10 per cent.