S&P 500 Index opens in the red, energy stocks suffer heavy losses

• Wall Street's main indexes opened modestly lower on Wednesday.
• Falling crude oil prices continue to weigh on energy shares.
• Fed will announce monetary policy decisions later in the session.

Major equity indexes in the US started the day with small losses on Wednesday as investors stay on the sidelines while waiting for the US Federal Reserve to announce monetary policy decisions.

As of writing, the S&P 500 was down 0.12% on the day at 4,625, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was losing 0.35% at 35,923 and the Nasdaq Composite was virtually unchanged at 15,655.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Energy Index is down more than 1% pressured by a more-than-1% decline witnessed in US crude oil prices. On the other hand, the Consumer Discretionary Index is up 0.4% as the biggest gainer after the opening bell.

S&P 500 chart (daily)