Markets Off as Fed Meetings Begin

Wall Street opened down as the Fed Reserve began a two-day meeting that might provide some more answers on where the economy is headed.

In the first 15 minutes of trading, the Dow was down about 60 points, or more than half of 1 percent.

The broader S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq were down about half of 1 percent.

The Fed is not expected to raise interest rates but might signal an interest rate planned for next year.

In other news this morning, the Labor Department said U.S. productivity rose 6.4 percent in the second quarter, beating expectations, which predicted an increase of 5.3 percent.

On the face of it, this looks like good news, but economists believe the gain came from businesses cutting the number of hours worked faster than the decline in output. How do we know this? Labor costs fell 5.8 percent during the quarter.

-- Frank Ahrens
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