Dow Closes Above 10,000

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In Asia on Wednesday, China's Shanghai index rose 1.2%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index jumped 2%. Japan's Nikkei index slipped 0.2%. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 gained 1.98%, Germany's DAX index jumped 2.45%, and France's CAC-40 rallied 2.14%.

The FOMC minutes released Wednesday indicated policymakers believed an economic recovery was underway, with developments in the financial seen as "broadly positive." They were encouraged by the improvement in the housing market and the stabilization of prices. Although risks to the outlook had become more balanced, the economy was nevertheless seen remaining "quite weak," with resource utilization low while unemployment was likely to remain high. Bank credit remained difficult and or costly to obtain.

In economic news Wednesday, U.S. business inventories fell 1.5% in August, while sales rose 1.0%. The inventory/sales ratio plunged to 1.33 months from 1.36 in July, barely above its year-ago level of 1.30. The market had expected a 0.9% inventory drop. The big decline was concentrated in autos, where the cash for clunkers program got cars off the lot. Auto dealer inventories fell 9.5%, and are down 30.9% from a year ago. Inventories are down 13.2% from a year ago, while sales are down 14.9%.

Import prices edged up 0.1% in September, after surging 1.6% the month before. The September reading was much tamer than the 0.3% rate that markets had expected.

U.S. retail sales fell 1.5% in September, because of a 10.4% drop at auto dealers after the end of the clunkers program. Excluding autos, sales rose 0.5%. The consensus estimate was for a 2.0% drop overall, and a 0.2% rise excluding autos. The August increase was revised downward to a 2.2% increase form the 2.7% estimated last month, mostly because of a revision to the auto data.

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