Dow books worst October since 2020 as U.S. stocks close higher Tuesday before Fed decision

U.S. stocks closed higher Tuesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s statement on monetary policy, with all three major benchmarks booking gains on the last day of October but still slumping for the month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.38%
closed 0.4% higher, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.65%
gained 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+0.48%
rose 0.5%, according to preliminary data from FactSet. The Dow fell around 1.4% in October, while S&P 500 slumped 2.2% and the Nasdaq dropped 2.8%, preliminary FactSet data show. That marked a third straight monthly drop for all three indexes and the worst October for the Dow since 2020. Meanwhile, investors await the Fed’s monetary-policy statement, expected to be released at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference that same day.