US markets end lower; dollar rises to 2-year high

Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.38% or 48.59 points at 12604.53. Nasdaq Composite was down 0.49% or 14.35 points at 2887.98. Standard & Poor's 500 ended flat at 1341.45.

The fed says that it is open to the possibility of buying more bonds to stimulate the economy, but added that conditions might need to worsen for a consensus to build, according to the minutes of the its latest meeting in June.

On economic data front, US trade deficit narrowed 3.8% to 48.7 billion dollar in May. And wholesale inventories for May gained 0.3%.

The weekly mortgage applications slipped last week due to a drop in refinancing activity.

In key data to watch out for in US today, the weekly jobless claims may see a slight uptick to 375000 after they fell by 14,000 to 374,000 the previous week.

Meanwhile the downtrend in export prices may continue in June. Consensus estimates are at minus 0.2% compared to minus 0.4%. Import prices may see a more significant minus 1.9% fall compared to minus 1% fall in May.

In the currency space, the dollar rises to a two-year high versus the euro after the FOMC minutes of the June meeting disappointed speculators who had bet that the policy makers would signal a need for more monetary stimulus.

In commodities, crude prices gain with Brent above USD 100 levels following a drop in crude supplies and as the refineries operated at the highest rate in almost five years.