Stocks Opened Lower ahead of Fed

U. S. stocks opened lower on Wednesday as investors awaited news from the Federal Reserve, which wraps up its two-day policy meeting later in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 107.83 points, or 0.68%, to 15,820.73. The S&P 500 was down 11.09 points, or 0.62%, at 1781.41. The Nasdaq Composite was off 22.95 points, or 0.56%, at 4,075.02.

Turmoil in emerging markets and a month of disappointing job growth at home are unlikely to deter the Federal Reserve from trimming its bond-buying stimulus on Wednesday, as Ben Bernanke wraps up his last policy meeting at the helm of the U.S. central bank.

The Obama administration is scheduled on Wednesday to launch a retirement savings vehicle called “myRA,” aimed at enrolling more Americans in a government-backed investment option.

Aerospace and defence company Boeing Co (NYS:BA) reported net profit that beat expectations for the fourth quarter on Wednesday. Net income in the quarter rose to $1.23 billion (744.01 million pounds), or $1.61 a share, from $978 million, or $1.28 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $23.8 billion from $22.3 billion in the
quarter.

Ford beats profit forecasts for 4Q, 2013 on strong performance in North America and Asia. In 2013, Ford powered to a full-year profit of $7.2 billion, or $1.76 per share. On a pretax basis, Ford made $8.56 billion, its second-highest pretax profit in a decade after the $8.8 billion in earned in 2011.Full-year revenue rose 10 percent to $146.9 billion.