U.S. stocks open mostly down as Dow heads for third straight month of losses ahead of Fed decision

U.S. stocks opened mostly lower on Tuesday, remaining on track to finish October with a third straight month of losses ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.17%
was down 0.2% soon after the opening bell, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.40%
edged up less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+0.23%
slipped 0.1%, according to FactSet data, at last check. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were all on pace Tuesday to finish October with losses, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq heading for the biggest monthly drop among the three major stock benchmarks with a decline of more than 3%, according to FactSet data, at last check. Investors are widely expecting the Fed will announce on Wednesday, after the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting, that it’s holding its benchmark rate steady at a target range of 5.25% to 5.5%.