Stocks Continue Choppy Action as Street Sizes Up Earnings, Fed Minutes

A choppy stock session could be in the works after a weaker-than-expected housing construction reading knocked some of the air out of Wall Street’s early gains and pushed up the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield to 2.292%. The dollar gained, as did oil prices.

The stock market’s tone was already cautious. Analysts said weaker global equities markets fell in part because of the uncertainty sparked by news of a police raid in Paris on suspected terrorists. While the recent spate of tragic attacks has so far had limited direct impact on stock trading, the evolving scope of the attacks and the response does invite a degree of uncertainty for stock and commodities markets and can be added to a list of market drivers.

With the housing data raising fresh questions about economic resilience, attention swings this afternoon to more potential clues on the interest rate response in the Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes.

Clues from Fed Minutes? Investors are also awaiting the release later today of the Federal Reserve’s October meeting minutes, a meeting that revealed a slightly widening gap between doves and hawks. It’s likely that today’s document could be scrutinized for clues on the December meeting. The CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, calculated based on pricing in the Fed funds futures market, shows traders are pricing in about a 68% shot for a rate hike in December according to market pricing. That’s down slightly from a week ago but up from the 35% odds priced in right after the Fed took a pass on an October rate change but issued a statement entertaining the thought of a December hike. Traders in this market see a 72% chance for a hike in January and a 84% shot for a hike in March.

Target Hits its Mark. Target TGT topped Wall Street’s expectations with an increased in Q3 sales over the year-ago period. With the release, the retailer claimed its merchandise changes are paying off, helping to ease some concern for overall consumer spending heading into the key holiday shopping season. Shares—down about 3% this year—gained early Wednesday. TGT’s report follows one from Wal-Mart Stores WMT earlier this week that showed increased domestic sales but lower profits as the cost of its shuffle to help attract more shoppers bit into the bottom line.

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