Lower close ahead of Fed meeting

The markets continued to fall in afternoon trading to close lower with Dow losing 42 points to 18,037 ahead of the Federal Reserve's meeting tomorrow. Nasdaq dropped 31 points to 5,060.

On the upside

Shares of Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) extended its gains.

Snow Capital Management's Richard Snow increased his stake in CARBO Ceramics (NYSE: CRR).

The Wall Street Journal reported that the reorganization of Greece's negotiations team to limit the role of Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis increased the possibility of a deal with the Eurozone. Shares of National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG) rose.

On the downside

Profit taking continued to sink shares of Voltari (Nasdaq: VLTC).

Needham downgraded Aerie Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AERI) from a Buy rating to a Hold rating.

Topeka Capital Markets downgraded Merge Healthcare (Nasdaq: MRGE) from a Buy rating to a Hold rating.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 fell 8 points to 2108. Bitcoin added $5 to $223.