US stocks extend losses ahead of Fed policy meeting

On Monday, the S&P 500 and Dow ended a volatile session with gains (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-set-to-rise-try-to-recover-from-last-weeks-tumble-2015-12-14), helped by a rebound by hard-hit crude (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-hovers-at-multiyear-lows-analysts-see-no-bottoming-out-of-prices-2015-12-14), which is still down about 31% in the year to date.

Investors have come to terms with the Fed’s anticipated rate hike decision, said Joseph Benanti, managing director, sales and trading at Rosenblatt Securities in NY.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) began the highly-watched meeting Tuesday, and will release its post-meeting statement at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 43.13 points, or 0.9 per cent, to 4,995.36.

The Dow is down 454.57 points, or 2.6 percent.

Commerce Department data showed new construction of U.S. homes rose 10.5 percent in November, while building permits shot up 11 percent.

“The market is expected to remain problematic at least through Wednesday and the Fed announcement”, said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

CVS Health gained 1.7 percent as it raised its 2016 profit forecast and announced a 21 percent increase in its dividend.

Overseas, European equities suffered big losses as commodities continued to slide, with Britain’s benchmark FTSE 100 Index decreasing 1.32 percent.

In other markets, oil prices rallied Tuesday as traders started to buy after sharp decline of last week.

In late NY trading, the euro fell to 1.0918 dollars from 1.1000 dollars in the previous session, while the dollar bought 121.76 Japanese yen, higher than 120.83 yen of the previous session.

The S&P is down 15.49 points, or 0.8 percent.