1st LD Writethru: U.S. stocks end mixed ahead of Fed statement

U.S. stocks closed mixed Tuesday, as investors digested the newly-released economic data while awaiting U.S. Federal Reserve policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 22.40 points, or 0.13 percent, to 17,251.53. The S&P 500 fell 3.71 points, or 0.18 percent, to 2,015.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 21.61 points, or 0.45 percent, to 4,728.67.

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

The 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, generally in line with market expectations, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

"The big economics story in February was the rebound of retail sales and consumption in January. Today, we learned it was all a mistake. A massive downward revision to January sales suggests weak consumption didn't end at the turn of the year after all," said Chris low, chief economist at FTN Financial.

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

Overseas, European equities declined Wednesday as oil prices extended losses. German benchmark DAX index at Frankfurt Stock Exchange fell 0.56 percent, while French benchmark index CAC 40 lost 0.75 percent.

In Asia, Chinese Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.17 percent to close at 2,864.37 points Tuesday, while Japanese 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropped 0.68 percent as expectations for the Bank of Japan to unroll further easing measures were dashed. Endit