NEW YORK, March 19 — Wall Street stocks mostly fell early today ahead of a Federal Reserve decision as Japan’s central bank concluded its run of ultra-aggressive monetary stimulus.

Long after other leading central banks pivoted in response to inflation, the Bank of Japan finally changed its policy rate range from -0.1 per cent to between zero and 0.1 percent, in its first hike since 2007.

The move comes ahead of Wednesday’s Fed decision, which will be analysed as to its guidance on when the US central bank is likely to start cutting rates after a series of major rate hikes.

About 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2 per cent at 38,849.13.

The broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.3 per cent to 5,134.22, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.8 per cent to 15,982.00.

Among individual companies, Nvidia shed 1.5 per cent in what was seen as a "sell the news” move after the chip company unveiled late Monday its latest family of products for powering artificial intelligence. — AFP