(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window)*Fed minutes due at 2 p.m. ET*Job openings fall less than expected*Microsoft falls on UBS rating downgrade*Indexes up: Dow 0.73%, S&P 1.17%, Nasdaq 1.13%Jan 4 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes reversed
early losses on Wednesday, as investors looked past a set of
economic data, with focus squarely on the Federal Reserve's
December meeting minutes for clues on the outlook for interest
rates.Minutes from the Fed's previous meeting, when it raised
interest rates by half a percentage point and cautioned rates
may need to remain higher for longer, are due at 2 p.m. ET (1900
GMT).The minutes could show the central bank's internal
deliberations entering a new phase where risks to economic
growth and employment are given more standing, while curbing
high inflation remains the top priority."What you'll hear is the Fed needs to continue to hold the
line and fight inflation ... there'll be some back and forth
between various members about where the terminal rate should
land," said Darrell Cronk, chief investment officer at Wells
Fargo Wealth & Investment Management.U.S. job openings in November indicated a tight labor
market, giving the Fed cover to stick to its monetary tightening
campaign for longer, while other data showed manufacturing
contracted further in December.Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari on Wednesday
stressed the need for continued rate hikes, setting out his own
forecast that the policy rate should initially pause at 5.4%.U.S. equities were pummeled in 2022 on worries of a
recession due to aggressive monetary policy tightening, with the
three main stock indexes logging their steepest annual losses
since 2008.Market participants see a 66.7% chance of a 25-basis point
rate hike from the Fed in February, and see rates peaking at
4.98% by June.Apple Inc and Tesla Inc bounced back from
a searing drop in the previous session and rose 2.3% and 5.0%,
respectively."People repositioning their portfolios for this year is
leading the market to see these gains ... people are stepping
into names that really underperformed last year," said Robert
Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth Management.Meanwhile, Microsoft Corp dropped 4.3% following a
downgrade by brokerage UBS on worries over slowing growth for
its cloud services and Office suite.Consumer discretionary and financial stocks
led the gains among the major S&P 500 sector
indexes.At 11:52 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
was up 241.58 points, or 0.73%, at 33,377.95, the S&P 500
was up 44.63 points, or 1.17%, at 3,868.77, and the Nasdaq
Composite was up 117.59 points, or 1.13%, at 10,504.58.Salesforce Inc gained 3.4% on the enterprise
software firm's workforce reduction plans.Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 6.25-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 3.55-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.The S&P index recorded two new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 58 new highs and 39 new lows.
(Reporting by Shubham Batra, Amruta Khandekar and Ankika Biswas
in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)