U.S. stocks closed lower on Tuesday, but were well off the session’s lows, a day before the Federal Reserve could be poised to fire off its last interest rate hike of this cycle. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA shed about 367 points, or 1.1%, ending near 33,684, according to preliminary FactSet figures. The S&P 500 index SPX shed 1.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP closed 1.1% lower. Regional bank stocks were hammered on Tuesday, a day after JPMorgan Chase & Co. won an auction for the assets of the failed First Republic Bank. The SPDR S&P Regional Bank ETF KRE closed down 6.4% on Tuesday. U.S. crude oil prices also fell below $72 a barrel as fears of a U.S. recession were back in focus and as investors awaited the end of a 2-day Fed policy meeting in which the central bank was expected to raise rates another 25 basis points, but to also consider pausing rates to evaluate the impact on the economy and to households of its most aggressive pace of rate hikes in decades.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.