By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a mixed opening on Wednesday following the lackluster performance seen in the previous sessions.
Traders may be reluctant to make any significant moves ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve?s latest monetary policy meeting.
The minutes may shed additional light on the outlook for interest rates, which has recently contributed to considerable volatility on Wall Street.
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Stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Tuesday before ending the session modestly lower. The Dow and the S&P 500 closed lower for the first the time in six sessions.
The major averages ended the day in negative territory. The Dow slumped 254.63 points or 1 percent at 24,964.76, the Nasdaq edged down 5.16 points to 5.16 points or 7,234.31 and the S&P 500 fell by 15.96 points or 2,716.26.
The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders are digesting recent volatility and expressing some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets.
Traders were also reluctant to make more significant moves amid a quiet day on the U.S. economic front.
Most of the major sectors showed only modest moves on the day, although significant weakness was visible among gold stocks
Reflecting the weakness in the gold sectors, the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index slumped by 3.1 percent,
The weakness among gold stocks came amid a steep drop by the price of precious metal, with gold for April delivery plummeted $25.10 to $1,342.10 an ounce.
Pharmaceutical, transportation, and real estate stocks also saw considerable weakness, while significant strength was also visible among semiconductor stocks.
NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) jumped by 6 percent after Qualcomm (QCOM) raised its offer to acquire the chipmaker to $127.50 per share from $110 per share.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka