Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Fed Will Continue the Taper in February

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 1.11 percent to 15,751.48 while the NASDAQ declined 1.08 percent to 4,053.69. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.98 percent to 1,775.19.

Top Headline
Making headlines across the world Wednesday afternoon were the FOMC minutes. While the Fed declared that it has a more optimistic outlook on the economy, it chose to hold both rates, and the bond buying program at the current levels. The Fed also commented that it plans to continue the tapering process in February, which appeared to momentarily relieve the market.

Equities Trading UP
Medivation MDVN shot up 9.84 percent to $83.26 after the company and Astellas reported final results from the Phase 3 PREVAIL trial of Enzalutamide. Credit Suisse lifted the price target on the stock from $80.00 to $95.00.

Shares of Freescale Semiconductor FSL were also up, gaining 15.56 percent to $17.67 after the company beat street estimates on its fourth quarter report.

RF Micro Devices RFMD was also up, gaining 9.20 percent to $5.34 after the company reported Q3 results.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Boeing BA were down on Wednesday's session, falling 5.67 percent to $129.37 despite beating on the top and bottom line. The news dragging shares down was some poor fiscal year 2014 guidance on both top and bottom lines, showing headwinds for the company in the next year.

Cirrus Logic CRUS shares tumbled 8.48 percent to $17.15 after the company issued a downbeat Q4 revenue outlook.

Yahoo! YHOO was down, falling 8.40 percent to $35.00 after the company reported a decline in its Q4 revenue and online ad prices.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.01 percent to $97.40, while gold traded up 1.17 percent to $1,265.50.

Silver traded up 0.48 percent Wednesday to $19.68, while copper fell 0.352 percent to $3.24.

Eurozone
European shares were mostly lower today.

The Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.04 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 0.64 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX tumbled 0.74 percent and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.68 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.51 percent.

Economics
The MBA reported that its index of mortgage application activity fell 0.20% in the week ended January 24.

Crude supplies rose 6.4 million barrels for the week ended January 24, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a gain of 2.1 million barrels.

Distillate stockpiles fell 4.6 million barrels, while gasoline supplies slipped 800,000 barrels.

The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to announce its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET.