US stocks stable near record highs in pre-FOMC cautious trade

Major US equity indices built on overnight gains to record high closing level and touched fresh all-time highs during the opening hour of trade on Tuesday.

Early modest gains, however, lacked any strong momentum as investors preferred to stay on the sideline and waited the start of a two-day FOMC monetary policy meeting.

The Fed is widely expected to start reducing its massive $4.5 trillion balance sheet and leave interest rates unchanged. Investors, however, would be looking for clues over possibilities of any additional Fed rate hike move by the end of this year.

At the time of reporting, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up around 20-points to 22,353, while the broader S&P 500 Index held near yesterday's closing level around 2,504. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite underperformed a bit and traded lower by 4-points at 6,450.

Meanwhile, today's US economic releases - housing market data, trade balance figures and import/export price index, did little to provide any fresh impetus and were overshadowed by pre-FOMC cautious trade.