Wall Street Opens Flat After Sell-Off Ahead of Fed Minutes & Earnings

Stocks opened flat on Wednesday ahead of the release of minutes from the Fed's September meeting later this afternoon. Earnings season unofficially kicks off with Alcoa (AA) reporting after the close. Lower interest rates boosted mortgage applications last week. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, refinancing was up 5% and purchase applications rose 2%. Costco (COST) reported its quarterly results beat Wall Street's expectations. The warehouse retailer earned $1.58 per share, that's $0.06 more than estimates with revenue also above consensus. Yum Brands (YUM) missed its Q3 earnings on both the top and bottom lines. The operator of Taco Bell and Pizza Hut blamed the recent food safety scare in China for hurting sales there. Yum also lowered its full year forecast. Bloomberg is reporting Symantec (SYMC) is close to announcing it's splitting its security and data storage units into two separate businesses.

undefined