Wall Street Today: Facebook says ready to launch digital wallet

Fed Minutes show most officials see taper starting this year

Most Federal Reserve officials agreed last month they could start slowing the pace of bond purchases later this year, judging that enough progress had been made toward their inflation goal, while gains had been made toward their employment objective.

"Various participants commented that economic and financial conditions would likely warrant a reduction in coming months,"minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's July 27-28 gathering, released Wednesday, said. "several others indicated, however, that a reduction in the pace of asset purchases was more likely to become appropriate early next year.”

Robinhood revenue surges on Cryptocurrency trades

Revenue at $Robinhood(HOOD.US)$more than doubled in the second quarter thanks to a torrent of customers trading cryptocurrency, but the company posted a big loss due to an emergency funding dealearlier this year.

$Target(TGT.US)$reported increased revenue in the second quarter as more people returned to stores and online spending moderated compared with last summer, when the Covid-19 pandemic upended shopping habits.

Nvidia beats earnings expectations, but cryptocurrency chip sales falter

$NVIDIA(NVDA.US)$reported earnings on Wednesday for its second fiscal quarter, which ended Aug. 1, beating Wall Street estimates because of strong graphics card sales.

However, Nvidia's cryptocurrency chip product, CMP, had lower sales, at $266 million, than the $400 million the company predicted in May. Shares of Nvidia were up more than 2% in after-hours trading.

Cisco delivers slight beat as revenue grows 8%

$Cisco(CSCO.US)$shares moved slightly lower in extended trading on Wednesday after the networking hardware company reported earnings that exceeded analysts' expectations.

Revenue grew about 8% year over year in the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended on July 31, according to a statement. In the previous quarterrevenue rose almost 7% on an annualized basis. Gross margin narrowed to 63.6% from 63.9% in the prior quarter.

Top Fed official warns massive bond purchases are ill-suited for US economy

A top Federal Reserve official has warned that the US central bank's emergency bond-buying programme is ill-suited for an economy held back by supply constraints, urging instead a speedy end to the stimulus to avoid burdensome debts and inflationary pressures.

$Facebook Inc(FB.US)$ is ready to launch its digital wallet, according to David Marcus, the executive who spearheaded the social media group's move into digital currencies.