U.S. stocks trade mixed ahead of Fed decision

NEW YORK, March 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded mixed on Wednesday as investors were awaiting the closely-watched Federal Reserve decision on monetary policy due out later in the day.

At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 33.06 points, or 0.13 percent, to 24,694.21. The S&P 500 increased 0.44 points, or 0.02 percent, to 2,717.38. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 4.82 points, or 0.07 percent, to 7,369.13.

The Fed is scheduled to announce its decision at 2:00 p.m. Market expectations for a March rate-hike are 94.4 percent, according to the latest data from CME Group's FedWatch tool.

While most market participants expect the Fed to raise rates by 25 basis points, they will also pay close attention to Jerome Powell's first news conference as the Fed Chair and look for clues about whether the central bank will stay on track to hike three times this year.

In corporate news, shares of Facebook increased 0.5 percent on Wednesday after plunging nearly 9 percent in the previous two sessions, after reports showed that the social media giant allowed third parties to access data on millions of users without their knowledge. Enditem