Wall Street rebounds, then falls back

Stocks on Wall Street ended down after a roller-coaster session marked by no change in US monetary policy.

The Federal Reserve left its policy options open for 2012 while offering a slightly more upbeat assessment of the economy but noting it was still marked by "significant downside risks."

Nine out of 10 Fed officials voted to keep the easy-credit policies unchanged for the second meeting in a row in the last Federal Open Market Committee meeting of the year.

In economic news, retail sales grew less than expected last month, a disappointing start to the holiday shopping season.

Stocks started the day with a strong rebound from the previous session’s losses, though this was pared back after being up as much as 126 points.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 45 points shortly after the Fed statement was released but turned negative for the rest of th session to be down 68.72 points, or 0.6%, to 11,952.67 at the close (10am NZ time).

The S&P 500 index was down 0.9%, to 1225.66 and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.3% to 2579.27.

Other markets: Europe mixed, Asia down
European markets were mixed, with the Stoxx Europe 600 index closing up 0.5% at 237.30 after Germany's ZEW survey for December showed improved economic expectations.

Germany's DAX index fell 0.2% to 5774.26 and France's CAC-40 closed down 0.4% at 3078.72. The UK's FTSE 100 closed 1.1% higher at 5490.15, largely helped by a rise in oil stocks.

Asian markets were broadly lower on the back of Monday's losses in the US.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.2% to 8552.81, Korea's Kospi lost 1.9% to 1864.06 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index gave up 1.4% to 4193.4.

China's Shanghai Composite, in its fourth straight down day, dropped 1.9% to 2248.59, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.7% to 18,447.17 and Taiwan's Taiex slid 0.8% to 6896.31.

Commodities: Oil up, gold down
Crude-oil futures leapt more than 3% on rumours that Iran had closed a key Middle East oil-shipping channel, though this was denied by an Iranian official.

Light, sweet crude oil for January delivery rose as much as 3.6% a barrel in New York before falling back below $US100 a barrel.

The contract was up $US2.04 at $US99.81. Brent crude oil was $US2.08 higher at $US109.34 a barrel.

Gold futures were on track to notch another seven-week low.

Currencies: Euro falls to one-year low
The euro fell to its lowest level in nearly a year against the US dollar Germany affirmed its opposition to expanding the eurozone's bailout fund beyond €500 billion.

The euro was at $US1.3090, down from $US1.3199 earlier and versus $US1.3188 late on Monday.

The US dollar was at ¥77.89 from ¥77.93 and stood at 0.9418 Swiss franc from 0.9372 franc. The UK pound traded at $US1.5535 compared with $US1.5583.