U.S. stock benchmarks kicked off trade slightly higher, struggling to gain altitude, as investors were reluctant to make substantial bets ahead of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January meeting. With inflation fears and worries about borrowings costs, the market will look for clues about the central bank’s inflation outlook and the pace of rate hikes when the minutes are released at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 0.1% higher at 24,984, while the S&P 500 opened 0.1% higher at 2,720. The technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.3% to 7,255. In individual stocks, shares of LendingClub Corp , Devon Energy and pay-TV provider Dish Network Corp slipped following their fourth-quarter earnings reports.
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