U.S. stocks open lower amid data, oil slide

U.S. stocks opened lower on Tuesday as investors digested the newly-released data and awaited the U.S. Federal Reserve policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed is scheduled to kick off its highly-anticipated policy meeting on Tuesday and hold a press conference on Wednesday. Most analysts expect the U.S. central bank will not raise its interest rates at the meeting.

On the economic front, advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for February saw decreases of 0.1 percent from the previous month to 447.3 billion U.S. dollars, below market expectations, according to the U.S. Commerce Department Tuesday.

Total sales for the December 2015 through February period were up 2.9 percent from the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Producer Price Index for final demand fell 0.2 percent in February, seasonally adjusted, the Labor Department posted Tuesday.

On an unadjusted basis, the final demand index was unchanged for the 12 months ended in November, the tenth consecutive 12-month decline.

Oil extended the prior session's losses, with the West Texas Intermediate for April delivery off 1.72 percent in the early trading Tuesday.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 101.22 points, or 0.59 percent, to 17,127.91. The S&P 500 fell 12.75 points, or 0.63 percent, to 2,006.89. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 25.34 points, or 0.53 percent, to 4,724.94.

U.S. stocks pared early losses to close narrowly mixed Monday, as investors awaited the U.S. Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting later this week. Endi