U.S. stocks open lower ahead of Fed meeting

U.S. stocks opened mildly lower on Thursday, as investors were cautious ahead of a U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting, which is expected to raise interest rate for the first time in nearly a decade.

Oil prices continued to hover near sever-year low after the decision of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last Friday to keep crude production pumping at current level in an already oversupplied market.

"We've seen equity markets correlate fairly closely to the price of crude of late. OPEC apparently swung and missed at their chance to support the price of a barrel when they took a powder last week at the cartel's big shindig," said Stephen Guilfoyle, managing director at Deep Value, Thursday.

The West Texas Intermediate for January delivery dropped 0.91 percent in the early trading Thursday, and Brent crude for January delivery also lost 0.55 percent.

U.S. stocks closed lower in choppy trade on Wednesday, as weak oil prices continued to weigh on market.

On the economic front, in the week ending Dec. 5, the advance figure for seasonally adjust initial claims was 282,000, an increase of 13,000 from the previous week' s unrevised level of 269,000, according to the U.S. Labor Department Thursday.

The 4-week moving average was 270,750, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 269,250.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 11.59 points, or 0.07 percent, to 17,480.71. The S&P 500 ticked down 0.95 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,046.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index inched down 2.46 points, or 0.05 percent, to 5,020.41. Endi