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Fed's July meet minutes to be released at 2:00 p.m. ET

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Target ( TGT ) jumps after lifting FY profit forecast

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JD.com ( JD ) slides after Walmart ( WMT ) sells $3.74 bln stake

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Ford up on reshuffling EV plans

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Indexes up: Dow 0.24%, S&P 500 0.51%, Nasdaq 0.68%

(Updated at 10:24 a.m. ET/1424 GMT)

By Shashwat Chauhan and Johann M Cherian

Aug 21 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq inched up

amid volatile trading on Wednesday, as investors assessed a

downward revision in U.S. payrolls data and awaited the release

of minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting.

A Labor Department report showed an estimate for total

payroll employment between April 2023 and March 2024 was lowered

by 818,000, a 0.5% drop from what was originally reported for

the period, as the central bank gears up to start cutting

interest rates in September.

The focus is now on the release of minutes from the Fed's

July policy meeting, expected at 2:00 p.m. ET, at which Chair

Jerome Powell hinted at a possible interest rate reduction in

September.

Jay Woods, chief global strategist at Freedom Capital

Markets, said he would look for any signs of dissension about

easing policy in the Fed minutes.

"We want to see if there was dissension, and will this lead

to a definitive cut (next month)?"

The centerpiece event of the week is the Jackson Hole

economic symposium on Friday, at which Powell will speak. Market

participants will look for hints in his comments on the pace of

monetary policy easing following a batch of mixed economic data

recently.

Financial markets are currently pricing in a near 68%

likelihood of a 25 basis-points interest rate cut by the Fed in

September, with a 32.5% chance of a super-sized 50 bps cut,

according to CME's FedWatch tool.

At 10:47 a.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose

96.43 points, or 0.24%, to 40,931.40, the S&P 500 gained

28.52 points, or 0.51%, to 5,625.64 and the Nasdaq Composite

gained 121.8 points, or 0.68%, to 17,938.73.

Seven of the 11 S&P 500 sectors were in gains, with consumer

staples among top advancers, helped by Target's ( TGT )

13% jump after the retailer raised its annual profit

forecast.

The blue-chips Dow underperformed, weighed down by

rate-sensitive financials stocks such as Goldman Sachs ( GS )

and JPMorgan Chase & Co. ( JPM )

Wall Street's main indexes closed marginally lower on

Tuesday, breaking their recent winning streak.

Risk appetite had returned to global equities last week

following sharp declines earlier this month, boosted by the

likelihood of rate cuts from the U.S. central bank in September,

with all three major U.S. benchmarks now at levels seen before

the sell-off.

Among others, TJX Cos ( TJX ) rose 5.5% after the off-price

retailer lifted its annual profit forecast.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com ( JD )

dropped 6.3% after Reuters reported that

Walmart ( WMT ), the company's biggest shareholder, has sold its

entire stake in the firm.

Macy's lowered its annual net sales forecast, sending

the retailer's shares down 13.6%.

Ford Motor ( F ) rose 1.1% after the automaker reshuffled

its electric vehicle plans.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.73-to-1 ratio

on the NYSE and by a1.98-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 36 new 52-week highs and no new lows,

while the Nasdaq recorded 55 new highs and 35 new lows.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Johann M Cherian in

Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K and Shinjini Ganguli)