The Dow Jones industrial average fell over 200 points at Monday's open, but recovered slightly in afternoon trading, slightly offsetting earlier losses after reports surfaced that Greece was nearing a deal with its international creditors to continue receiving bailout funds.
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos is slated to hold a teleconference with officials from the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, (collectively referred to as the troika) to convince them that Greece will be able to fall in line with strict budget objectives promised in return to far bailout funds.
News from the rest of the Euro zone was similarly grim -- credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut its ratings on Italy by one notch in a surprising move overnight.
Stateside, the Federal Reserve began a two-day meeting on interest rate policy on Tuesday. Reuters report that the central bank "is expected to try to push already low long-term interest rates even lower by tilting toward longer-duration bonds in its portfolio."
Overseas markets had a mixed reaction: European shares rose as investors capitalized on bargains after Monday's drop, and Japan's Nikkei average fell 1.6 percent.
