OREANDA-NEWS. September 21, 2011. US stocks slightly fell on Tuesday with Basic Materials (-1.13%) as the laggards. S&P 500 index declined by 0.17%, Russell 2000 Index – by 1.75%. VIX was up by 0.4% to 32.86.

Statistics were negative – Housing starts fell by 5.0% to 571 thous.

EURUSD closed near 1.365 – rumors on Eurotroika-Greece possible agreement supported risk assets.

Asian were positive on Wednesday. Nikkei added 0.23%. S&P/ASX was up by 0.78%. Korean Kospi added 0.89%. Hang Seng lost 0.51%. Shanghai stock indices were up on average by 2.8%.

The European stock indices futures were volatile in the morning - Dow Jones Stoxx 50 futures was down by 1.36% while Dax futures lost 1.36%. S&P futures added 0.13%.

US existing home sales, due at 14:00 GMT and FOMC meeting results, due at 18:15 GMT will be in focus today. The Fed is expected to announce the “twist” US bond purchases strategy.