U.S. stocks open lower as Fed meeting begins

U.S. stocks opened lower Tuesday as investors awaited the outcome of the Federal Reserves two-day policy meeting.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 26.57 points, or 0.15 percent, to 17,705.91. The S&P 500 lost 3.84 points, or 0.18 percent, to 2,075.22. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 7.75 points, or 0.16 percent, to 4,840.69.

Investors kept a close eye on the U.S. central bank's conference that started on Tuesday, for more clues on the timing of a next interest rate hike.

However, most analysts predicted that the Fed won't make the rate decision in the meeting.

Also on Tuesday, the Commerce Department announced that advance estimates of the U.S. retail and food sales in May increased 0.5 percent from the previous month to 455.6 billion U.S. dollars, beating the market's prediction.

Meanwhile, prices for the U.S. imports increased 1.4 percent in May, following a surge of 0.7 percent in April, while the U.S. export prices jumped for 1.1 percent in May, after a 0.5-percent rise the previous month, according to the U.S. Labor Department Tuesday.

Earlier on Monday, the U.S. stocks retreated further as investors became cautious ahead of the meeting. Endi