US stocks ease, focus shifts on Fed

The US stocks closed lower on Friday, led by technology-related megacaps, while investors weighed the interest rate outlook ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting. Nasdaq slumped 1% while the S&P 500 slid 0.7%. Dow fell 0.5%. The major US stock indexes have backed off record highs ahead of the Federal Reserve's all-important March monetary policy meeting. The US central bank is set to release its latest monetary policy decision and updated economic projections at 2:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, preliminary data released by the University of Michigan on Friday showed a slight deterioration in U.S. consumer sentiment in the month of March. The report said the consumer sentiment index edged down to 76.5 in March after falling to 76.9 in February. The slight decrease by the headline index partly reflected a modest deterioration in consumer expectations, as the index of consumer expectations slipped to 74.6 in March from 75.2 in February. Meanwhile, the report said the current economic conditions index came in at 79.4 in March, unchanged from the previous month.

With manufacturing and mining output recovering from weather-related declines in January, the Federal Reserve released a report on Friday showing a slight increase in U.S. industrial production in the month of February. The Fed said industrial production inched up by 0.1 percent in February after falling by a downwardly revised 0.5 percent in January. The uptick in production came as manufacturing climbed by 0.8 percent in February after slumping by 1.1 percent in January and mining output surged by 2.2 percent in February after plunging by 2.9 percent in January.