Stocks Fret Fed

(This story has been updated.)

Wall Street ended narrowly mixed Wednesday as commentary from the last Federal Reserve meeting spooked buyers and threw cold water on what had been an explosive beginning to 2007.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average swung in a 175-point range and ended up by 11.37 points, or 0.09%, at 12,474.52. Earlier, it set a new intraday record of 12,580.03. Ten of the index's 30 components finished in negative territory.

After opening with a big jump, the S&P 500 weakened and lost 1.70 points, or 0.12%, to 1416.60. The Nasdaq Composite tacked on 7.87 points, or 0.33%, to 2423.16. The index was supported by advances in Sirius (SIRI Quote) and XM (XMSR Quote).

"While the Dow continued to plow its way into new-high territory last week, the Nasdaq has flattened out," said Ken Tower, chief market strategist with CyberTrader. "There are other signs of declining upside momentum, as well. These first two trading days will provide important clues to the trend for the next few weeks."

Volume improved greatly from last week, with more than 3.20 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange. Decliners and advancers were matched evenly. Volume on the Nasdaq was roughly 2.47 billion shares, with losers barely edging winners.

Stocks retreated after the 2 p.m. EST release of the Federal Open Market Committee minutes of its December meeting. At that gathering, policymakers left the fed funds target rate, the rate banks use to charge each other interest for overnight loans, at 5.25%. That was the fourth consecutive time that the Fed had met without increasing rates.

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