NEW YORK: Signs that the Federal Reserve may be reticent to launch a fresh round of stimulus sent Wall Street lower Tuesday.

Amid amped-up market expectations, the Fed published its minutes for its March 13 policy meeting, which showed there was little sign of a quick move by the Fed to juice the economy.

"(The) minutes confirmed that there was a significant movement away from additional stimulus," said Stephen Stanley, an economist with Pierpont Securities.

Stanley added that a solid unemployment report this Friday would probably be "the final nail in the coffin" of plans for new measures.

The prospect of reduced liquidity sent markets lower.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 64.94 points (0.49 percent) to finish the session at 13,199.55.

The Nasdaq was down 6.13 points, or 0.20 percent, to 3,113.57 points.

The SandP 500 shed 5.66 points (0.40 percent) to 1,413.38.

An increase in US factory orders in February left Wall Street unmoved earlier in the day.

The Commerce Department reported that orders had increased US$6.0 billion or 1.3 percent to US$468.4 billion for the month, slightly less than expected.

Among individual stocks Bank of America, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems all lost roughly two percent.

McDonald's, American Express, Merck, Home Depot and IBM were the only Dow components in the black. -- AFP