Stocks Are Lower Ahead Of The Fed

Stocks are lower ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement, set for 2 p.m. ET.

The Dow is down 21 points, the S&P 500 is down 4 points, and the Nasdaq is down 29 points.

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to announce the conclusion of its quantitative easing program at Wednesday's meeting.

Earlier this month, as stocks fell and bond yields dropped, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard suggested that the Fed could consider continuing its quantitative easing program, despite having said for a few months that it would end the program this month. Quantitative easing, or QE, is the Fed's program of buying up a ton of assets to stimulate the economy more than a central bank could normally do through interest rate policy.

The Fed's statement will also be closely parsed to see if the Fed changes any language surrounding the beginning of interest rate hikes, which the Fed has so far said will take place a "considerable time" after the end of QE.

You can read Shane Ferro's full preview here, and we'll have wall-to-wall live coverage of the statement when it drops at 2 p.m. ET.

The Nasdaq is the session's biggest loser as the tech index is being dragged down by Facebook, which is off more than 6% after saying on its earnings conference call Tuesday night that 2015 would be a year of "investing aggressively" for the social network.

On the call, Facebook CFO David Wehner said that Facebook's expenses could grow 50% to 70% next year.

In the third quarter, however, the company reported earnings and revenue that topped expectations.

Another big stock mover on Wednesday was Orbital Sciences, down more than 16% after the company's rocket set to deliver supplies to the International Space Station exploded shortly after liftoff on Tuesday night.

No one was hurt during the incident.

Shares of Fiat Chrysler were up better than 12% on Wednesday after the company said it planned to spin off its Ferrari unit next year.