The market is treading water ahead of Fed meeting tomorrow. The rate announcement will come at 2 pm on Wednesday, followed by Yellen’s remarks.  FedWatch has a 93% probability of a hike. Treasury yields edged a bit lower to 2.593% ahead of the likely rate hike.

Stocks are down across the board, but energy leads the decliners.  Oil hit a 3-month low with supply continuing to offset OPEC ‘s output restrictions. Crude is trading at $47.35, down 2%. Chevron and Exxon are a drag on the Dow. 

On the economic front, the Labor Department released the Producer Price Index (PPI) this morning. The PPI increased 0.3% last month. For the 12 months through February, the PPI had its largest in advance since March 2012, up 2.2%.  Tomorrow morning, CPI and Retail Sales are on tap before the open.

Between the weather and the Fed, it’s pretty quiet.  Market internals are negative across the board on lower than average volume. The VIX, referred to as the fear index, is up trading higher today up 9.07% to 12.38.  Decliners led advancers 2123/756 on the NYSE, and 1980/632 on the Nasdaq. 

VIX

Let’s see how the rest of the session goes.