"Right now Fed fund futures are pricing in three rate hikes with just under a 50-50 short of a fourth," said Matt Miskin, market strategist at John Hancock Investments. "The Fed minutes and the lead up to the March meeting could push that fourth rate hike into play as we find more about inflationary data and how the Fed is looking into that."
At 12:38 pm ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4 percent at 25,063.84, with Boeing and United Tech providing the biggest boost. The S&P 500 rose 0.52 percent to 2,730.3 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.75 percent at 7,288.67.
Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet powered the S&P and the Nasdaq. Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 1.04 percent gain in the industrial index. The real estate sector fell the most with a 0.72 percent decline after data showed US home sales unexpectedly fell in January. Qualcomm fell 1.05 percent after Broadcom lowered its takeover offer for the chipmaker. The revised offer comes in the wake of Qualcomm's sweetened bid for NXP Semiconductors.