NEW YORK, New York - U.S. industrial stocks interrupted their five-day rally on Wednesday with all the major indices losing ground.

An aggressive Fed is keeping buyers at bay, with the latest Fed minutes released Wednesday revealing the Federal Reserve remains on track to tame inflation.

"Participants continued to anticipate that ongoing increases in the target range for the federal funds rate would be appropriate to achieve the Committee's objectives," the minutes said. "With inflation remaining well above the Committee's objective, participants judged that moving to a restrictive stance of policy was required to meet the Committee's legislative mandate to promote maximum employment and price stability."

The Nasdaq Composite skidded 164.43 points or 1.25 percent to close Wednesday at 12,938.12.

The Dow Jone industrials dived 171.69 points or 0.50 percent to 33,980.32.

The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 31.16 points or 0.72 percent to 4,274.04.

On foreign exchange markets, the euro steadied at 1.0180 around the New York close Wednesday. The British pound dropped to 1.2051 after the nation registered an annualized 10.1 percent inflation reading last month, a level not seen since 1982. The Japanese yen was unwanted at 135.00. The Swiss franc eased to 0.9514.

The Canadian dollar weakened to 1.2906. The Australian dollar fell to 0.6936. The New Zealand dollar fell to 0.6283 despite an RBNZ 50 basis point interest rate hike.

On overseas equity markets, the biggest loser was the German Dax which shed 2.04 percent. The Paris-based CAC 40 was down 0.97 percent. In London, the FTSE 100 dipped 0.27 percent.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 surged 353.86 points or 1.23 percent to 29,222.77.

China's Shanghai Composite climbed 14.64 points or 0.45 percent to 3,292.53.

The Australian All Ordinaries advanced 19.20 points or 0.26 percent to 7,381.10.

New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 added 5.78 points or 0.05 percent to 11,852.93.

In South Korea, the Kospi Composite rose 17.05 points or 0.67 percent to 2,516.47.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 87.40 points or 0.44 percent to 19,918.12.