Wall Street ends down ahead of Fed meeting conclusion

Wall Street ends down ahead of Fed meeting conclusion

 Stocks on Wall Street closed lower on Tuesday (Wednesday morning GMT ) , as investors awaited the conclusion of the U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting on Wednesday that many anticipated .

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 9.31 points, or 0.06 percent, to 15875.26 .

The broad-based S & P 500 fell 5.54 points , or 0.31 percent, to 1781.00 , while the tech -heavy Nasdaq composite index gave up 5.84 points, or 0.14 per cent at 4023.68 .

" Investors are basically sitting on their hands , " said Sam Stovall , chief investment strategist at S & P Capital IQ as quoted by AFP .

" Yesterday we had an oversold rally , " Stovall said . " And now , investors really do not want to chase the rally for fear that the Fed will do or say something that the market turns back down . "

The Federal Open Market Committee ( FOMC ) U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday began a two-day meeting that will debate whether economic conditions are strong enough to immediately withdraw its quantitative easing program 85 billion dollars per month .

Analysts at odds about the possibility of a reduction in the stimulus , but several , including Stovall , estimates the Fed to announce a moderate reduction of approximately $ 10 billion bond buying program .

Facebook rose 2.0 percent after the start experimenting with video ads this week , potentially opening a large source of revenue .

Fuel pipeline company Williams Companies jumped 4.3 percent after Corvex Management and Soroban Master Fund revealed that they have jointly acquired 8.8 percent of the company and seek representation on the board . Equally important, is the latest example of shareholder activism in the oil .

Dow component Boeing rose 0.9 percent after announcing share buyback 10 billion U.S. dollars and 50 percent dividend increase .

Fellow member of the Dow , 3M rose 2.9 percent after announcing a 35 percent dividend increase . The company also forecast 2014 earnings of 7.30 to 7.55 U.S. dollars per share , compared with analysts' expectations of 7.40 dollars .

Hewlett - Packard rose 3.5 percent after JPMorgan Chase raised its rating on the stock. Note JPMorgan said the challenges faced by HP's " reduced " and that the outlook for the PC " getting better , " Barron said.

Bond prices rose . The yield on U.S. government 10 - year Treasury fell to 2.84 percent from 2.88 percent on Monday , while the 30 - year fell to 3.87 percent from 3.90 percent . Prices and bond yields move inversely