U.S. stocks fall amid data, oil slide

U.S. stocks traded lower in the morning session on Tuesday, as investors digested the newly-released data while awaiting the U.S. Federal Reserve policy announcement on Wednesday.

At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average mildly lost 19.48 points, or 0.11 percent, to 17,209.65. The S&P 500 fell 8.26 points, or 0.41 percent, to 2,011.38. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 18.97 points, or 0.40 percent, to 4,731.31.

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

On the economic front, advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for February decreased 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 more than 2 percent around midday trading Tuesday.

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