US stocks fall as Fed meeting gets underway with inflation and Omicron in focus

US stocks fall as Fed meeting gets underway with inflation and Omicron in focus

US stocks dropped Tuesday as investors prepared for what the Federal Reserve may say about monetary policy with inflation running hot and the global spread of the Omicron coronavirus strain picking up. The Nasdaq Composite, home to the market's largest technology companies, slumped amid worries the Fed could signal that a faster pace of interest rate hikes is needed to tamp down on inflation. The S&P 500 fell further away from Friday's record-high finish, with the tech sector leading the slide. The Fed started its two-day policy meeting Tuesday with government data showing producer price inflation hitting a record high of 9.6% in November from a year ago. That joined last week shooting up to a 39-year high of 6.8%. Central bank policymakers will conclude their meeting Wednesday and release a statement at 2 p.m. ET, followed by a briefing from Fed Chair Jerome Powell. "The market is worried that the Fed will tighten [policy] too much, but also that inflation rises, or stays too high for too long. Nothing else is nearly as worrying," Kit Juckes, chief FX strategist at Societe Generale, wrote in a note Tuesday. Meanwhile, worries about the Omicron variant returned to the fore. China reported