Minutes from the Fed's Jan. 31-Feb. 1 meeting said that "almost all" Fed officials agreed to slow the pace of increases in interest rates to a quarter of a percentage point.

There was also solid backing for the belief that the risks of high inflation remained a "key factor" that would shape monetary policy and further rate hikes would be necessary until it was controlled.

After choppy trading for much of the day, the main benchmark indexes went into the minutes' release holding slight gains. These advances were held after the Fed's latest commentary was released.

By 2:12 p.m. EST (1912 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 4.54 points, or 0.01%, to 33,134.13, the S&P 500 gained 6.22 points, or 0.16%, to 4,003.56 and the Nasdaq Composite added 45.91 points, or 0.4%, to 11,538.21.