By Leah Schnurr
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Equities and bond prices pulled lower on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it would maintain the pace of its bond buying and gave no explicit indication it was close to slowing the stimulus program.
Fed officials cited further improvement in labor market conditions, and also repeated that unemployment is still too high for their comfort, reinforcing their desire to keep buying assets until the outlook for jobs improves substantially.
Markets had been even more focused on the policy-setting statement than usual after comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last month raised worries the quantitative easing program could be slowed sooner than had been expected. Bernanke will give a press conference at 2:30 p.m. EDT (1830 GMT).
U.S. stocks were down nearly 0.5 percent shortly after the statement, while U.S. Treasuries prices added to losses to hit session lows. The MSCI world equity index lost 0.3 percent.
"There's no change in the program. I would not be surprised to see a round-trip here where the first reaction is down because there's almost nothing that's going to change the ultimate move, which will eventually be to taper," said Rick Meckler, president of Libertyview Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 66.43 points, or 0.43 percent, to 15,251.80. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 7.09 points, or 0.43 percent, to 1,644.72. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 14.28 points, or 0.41 percent, to 3,467.90.
Benchmark 10-year Treasuries were last off 25/32 in price to yield 2.28 percent. The 30-year bond was 27/32 lower in price with a yield of 3.39 percent.
The U.S. dollar reversed earlier losses and rose against the euro and yen. The euro last traded at $1.3354, down 0.3 percent. The dollar was at 95.81 yen, up 0.5 percent on the day.
(Additional reporting by; Editing by Dan Grebler and Chizu Nomiyama)
