Investing.com – Wall Street ticked lower on Tuesday as stronger-than-expected industrial production and manufacturing output figures put another dent in hopes for a rate cut from the Federal Reserve, whose regular policy meeting kicks off later.
The Dow fell 74 points or 0.3% by 9:54 AM ET (13:54 GMT), while the S&P 500 lost 2 points or 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite was down 3 points or 0.1%.
The Fed concludes its meeting on Wednesday, and is expected to cut rates by 25 basis points, although a growing minority of investors think the central bank will keep rates steady in the face of higher oil prices, rising inflation and a possible rapprochement between the U.S. and China on trade.
"It's just typical trading on the vigil of a Fed meeting," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
"We haven't seen any panic from what happened over the weekend. I think (the Fed) will stick with a quarter of a percentage point cut even after the Saudi attack."
Glass and optical component maker Corning (NYSE:GLW) slumped 8% after it cuts its sales forecast for TV and cable parts, while Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) was down 2.7% after announcing a secondary stock offering.
SeaWorld Entertainment (NYSE:SEAS) fell 4.3% as its CEO Gustavo Antrocha resigned after only seven months on the job, while Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) declined 3.9% after 3G Capital Partners sold 25.2 million of its shares of the company.
Elsewhere, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.1% to 98.100 and gold futures slipped 0.1% to $1,509.25 a troy ounce. Crude oil futures dropped 4.3% after Saudi Arabia said oil production will return to normal levels faster than expected.
The news took an immediate bite out of U.S. shale oil stocks, which had surged on Monday in the wake of the attacks on Saudi Arabia. Continental Resources (NYSE:CLR) fell 9.3%, while Apache (NYSE:APA) fell 8.5% and Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) fell 4.5%.
The news took an immediate bite out of U.S. shale oil stocks, which had surged on Monday in the wake of the attacks on Saudi Arabia. Continental Resources (NYSE:CLR) fell 9.3%, while Apache (NYSE:APA) fell 8.5% and Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) fell 4.5%.
-Reuters contributed to this report