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Nvidia ( NVDA ), Salesforce ( CRM ) results due after the bell

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Dick's Sporting Goods up after first-quarter results beat

(Updates to close)

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, May 28 (Reuters) -

U.S. stock indexes closed lower on Wednesday as investors

digested minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting and

awaited results from AI bellwether Nvidia ( NVDA ).

Nvidia's ( NVDA ) report is due after the closing bell.

Analysts expect the chipmaker to report a jump in first-quarter

revenue, according to LSEG data.

"The market is spinning its wheels today," said Peter

Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities

in New York. Losses mounted, however, ahead of the closing

bell.

"The Fed minutes really didn't reveal anything new," he

said. "They basically indicate the Fed is in a wait-and-see mode

and staying the line, trying to get more clarifications on

trade."

U.S. President Donald Trump backed down over the weekend

from his threat of 50% tariffs on imports from the European

Union, driving stocks up sharply on Tuesday.

Besides Nvidia ( NVDA ), Salesforce ( CRM ) results are due after

the closing bell.

Traders in options markets were bracing for

industry-wide volatility, with defensive options contracts

drawing heavy attention for the VanEck Semiconductor ETF

, the largest semiconductor ETF.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 31.59

points, or 0.53%, to end at 5,889.95 points, while the Nasdaq

Composite lost 91.27 points, or 0.47%, to 19,107.89. The

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 237.24 points, or

0.56%, to 42,106.41.

Shares of Cadence Design Systems ( CDNS ) and Synopsys ( SNPS )

were down sharply after the Financial Times reported

that the Trump administration has ordered U.S. firms that offer

software used to design semiconductors to stop selling their

services to Chinese groups. The FT report cited people familiar

with the move.

According to the minutes of the Fed's May 6-7 session,

U.S. central bank officials acknowledged they could face

"difficult tradeoffs" in coming months in the form of rising

inflation alongside rising unemployment.

The S&P 500 is still down from its record closing high,

reached on February 19. It fell as much as 18.9% below that

level in the wake of Trump's erratic tariff announcements that

have whipsawed markets for much of his second term.

A poll of strategists and analysts conducted by Reuters

showed that many market participants expected the benchmark

index to finish the year near current levels.

Shares of sportswear retailer Dick's Sporting Goods

gained after its first-quarter results beat estimates.

(Additonal reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Kanchana

Chakravarty in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and David

Gregorio)