US Stocks Mostly Lower on Tuesday

US stocks closed mostly lower Tuesday, amid a two-day meeting of Federal Reserve officials that began Tuesday.

    Tuesday’s US stock-trading volume was the second-lowest this year after hitting a 2016 trough Monday, following a broad stock-market recovery over the past month and ahead of the Fed announcement on Wednesday.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 22.40 points, or 0.1%, to 17251.53. The S&P 500 fell 3.71, or 0.2%, to 2015.93.  The Nasdaq Composite fell 21.61, or 0.5%, to 4728.67.  US crude-oil futures sank 2.3% to $36.34 a barrel as traders returned their focus to an oversupply of crude.

    Earlier Tuesday, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.7% after the Bank of Japan left its monetary policy unchanged as expected but downgraded its assessment of the economy. 

    Meanwhile, the Stoxx Europe 600 lost 1.1% as oil and metals prices dropped. The dollar fell 0.6% against the yen to 113.18, while the dollar rose 1.1% against the British pound to $1.4151.