By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - Wall Street eased off session lows on Tuesday, ahead of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting amid growing expectations the central bank will continue to signal that rates will remain low for some time.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.75%, or 206 points, the S&P 500 slipped 0.58%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.43%.
The Federal Reserve is expected to keep rates steady on Wednesday, but reiterate its conviction to support the economy, with many expecting further guidance on additional stimulus measures.
At its previous meeting, the Fed recently floated the idea of using yield curve control, which allows central banks to target specific government bond yield through the purchase and sale of bonds, to help keep lending rates near zero.
The general malaise in the broader market was paced by a slump in energy amid falling oil prices as investors appeared to take some profit on names in the sector that have jumped sharply recently.
Apache (NYSE:APA), Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY), and Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO), all of which are up more than 30% over the past five days, fell sharply, with the latter down 10%.
The reopening trade – bullish bets on stocks tied to the progress of the economic reopening – took a breather, with travel and tourism stocks down sharply.
American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) fell 10%, Carnival (NYSE:CCL) slid 6.8%, and Marriott (NASDAQ:MAR) slipped 5%.
Technology sidestepped the broader market decline with FAANG stocks leading the gains.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) were up 3% while Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) rose 2% and Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was up 0.6%.
In other news, Stitch Fix (NASDAQ:SFIX) fell 6.5% after the company reported a wider-than-expected loss of $0.33 in its fiscal third quarter.