Investors are eagerly awaiting the minutes from the latest meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers to get clues on the potential timing for interest rate hikes.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.8% and the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 0.5%. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.6%.
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The Fed releases the minutes of its April 29-30 meeting at 2 p.m, ET. After that meeting, the Fed said it would further cut its bond purchases because the U.S. job market needed less help.
It also reaffirmed its plan to keep short-term rates low to support the economy "for a considerable time" after its bond purchases end, likely late this year. It offered no specific timetable for a rate increase.
Retailers were in focus again Wednesday. Target said first-quarter profit fell 16% as losses in its Canadian operation and costs of last year's data breach took a toll, The results missed Wall Street estimates. Shares were up 0.1%.
Lowe's stock fell 0.8% after the retailer missed Wall Street estimates.
Overseas, European markets were higher. Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.1% and Germany's DAX was up 0.6%.
Asian markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei index fell 0.2% to 14,042.17 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was flat at 22,836.52.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Associated Press 
Alamy The ugly fight in Washington that shut down the government and nearly failed to raise the debt limit took a serious toll on consumer confidence. The Conference Board's monthly Consumer Confidence Index was released Tuesday, and it showed that people's confidence in the U.S. economy dipped sharply in October. In one month, the confidence index fell from 80.2 to 71.2, and the nonprofit that publishes the survey pointed the finger at the budget crisis. "Consumer confidence deteriorated considerably as the federal government shutdown and debt-ceiling crisis took a particularly large toll on consumers' expectations," wrote Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board. Franco went on to note that similar dips have been observed last year during the "fiscal cliff" debate and during the last government shutdown in the mid-1990s. The Conference Board isn't alone in its assessment that the shutdown hurt consumer confidence: Last week's Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer confidence survey found that confidence in the economy had reached its lowest ebb since December 2012. Consumer confidence is a closely watched economic indicator, and the troublesome reports come just a month before the official kick-off of the holiday shopping season. And that could spell trouble for the retail industry and the economy as a whole. "With the holiday shopping season around the corner, consumers have been shaken by all the political turmoil in Washington," wrote IHS Global Insights economist Chris Christopher in an email. "Looking ahead, we expect consumer confidence to gain traction in the upcoming months; however, confidence falls faster than it rises." There is a potential silver lining for consumers, though -- as Christopher points out, retailers will be discounting heavily to convince shoppers to shake off their worries and get to the mall.
Bloomberg News 
Alamy For almost as long as Christmas has been a commercialized holiday, there have been complaints about "Christmas Creep" -- the tendency for retailers to launch holiday sales and advertising earlier and earlier every year. This year, it seems to be worse than ever. We're already seeing the first commercials for Christmas shopping, and major retailers like Kmart (SHLD), Toys R Us and Walmart (WMT) are eagerly telling us what toys they expect to be top sellers this season. And Christmas is still three months away. "It does feel like the holidays begin earlier every year," says Alison Kenney Paul, head of the retail practice at Deloitte. As it turns out, there are a few reasons why Christmas Creep has been taken to new heights this year. No Presidential Election. Last year, two men stood in the way of the inexorable spread of Christmas: Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. The presidential election served as a bulwark of sorts, holding the public's attention and making it more expensive for retailers to run television ads in October. This year, retailers have free rein to take over the airwaves in the fall, and you can expect them to take advantage. "Between paid political advertising and media attention, the election crowded out the ability for retailers to get their message out there earlier," says Paul. "We'll see more advertising and promotions earlier this year." A Late Black Friday. Every year, Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November, with Black Friday coming the next day (well, in theory). But this year, the first of November falls on a Friday, which means that Thanksgiving (Nov 28) and Black Friday (Nov. 29) are as late as they can possibly be. "It is a shorter season than last year," says Paul. "You do have this phenomenon every few years where there's fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas." Think retailers are really going to wait around until Nov. 29 to roll out their big promotional efforts? Think again. While Black Friday will still be a big deal, its late arrival means that many retailers will place more emphasis on pre-Black Friday deals and promotions. "I think there will be a first wave of promotions before black Friday," says Jeff Feinberg, a retail industry veteran and a managing director with Alvarez & Marsal Private Equity Services. A Ridiculously Early Hanukkah. The late Thanksgiving is also intersecting with an unusually early Hanukkah -- in fact, the first night of the Jewish holiday falls on the evening Thanksgiving, which means Jewish shoppers really cant wait until Black Friday to do their shopping. And by the time Cyber Monday rolls around, the holiday will be more than half over. That's raised the specter of a second Black Friday aimed specifically at Jewish shoppers; we think it's more likely that this will simply be another reason for retailer to roll out promotions earlier in the season. Still, it's important to remember that only about 2 percent of the American population are Jewish, so this is a minor factor in the grand scheme of things. Paul says that while the early Hannukah gives retailers another platform to talk about the holidays, Jews are generally "too small a group to move the needle." Still, you may see a small effect on promotional activity in regions with heavy Jewish populations. (In some major markets in New York, Florida and California, for example, Jews represent a much higher percentage of shoppers -- one that retailers can't afford to ignore.) More Focus on Low-Income Shoppers. Walmart officially kicked off the holiday season back in August, when it announced its holiday layaway program. Meanwhile, Kmart aired what seems to be the first official holiday commercial of the season -- an ad for its layaway program. See a pattern? These discount retailers aren't doing a good enough job of connecting with the low-income shoppers who are supposed to be their bread-and-butter -- which is why they're offering services like free layaway in hopes of winning them back. And layaway, by its nature, needs to start early. So while some may rage at the absurdity of promoting Christmas shopping in September, keep in mind that these ads aren't necessarily aimed at you -- they're for the paycheck-to-paycheck shoppers who will benefit by putting toys on layaway now so they can pay for Christmas later. "Economic Headwinds." This has become a favorite phrase of retail executives who struggle to explain why their sales are weak, though Feinberg says that such concerns are somewhat exaggerated. "We're not in a meltdown; we don't have a flurry of companies shutting down factories," he says. Still, he notes that there's less hiring and stagnated wages, along with general concerns around gas prices and government gridlock. All of these factors have conspired to keep American purse strings relatively tight, and that's going to have skittish retailers eager to get out ahead of the competition -- especially in the wake of relatively light back-to-school sales. So all signs point toward an earlier shopping season. That's a strategy we're already seeing from Toys R Us, which earlier this month started offering big deals for early shoppers. At the time, we suggested that you take retailers up on the offer if the deals are good and you want to avoid the malls in December. But the same factors that are pushing retailers toward an earlier holiday shopping season might also dictate caution to the deal-hunting consumer. "At the first indication that things aren't going well, retailers are not going to wait a week for things to pick up," says Feinberg. "If Black Friday weekend is mediocre, I suspect those first two weeks of December will be huge for the consumer." As retailers start pushing sales and promotions over the next month, by all means listen to what they have to say. But if they're desperate enough to start running Christmas ads in September, they may also be desperate enough to go discount-crazy in December. Stay tuned. 
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