U.S. stocks rallied on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 closing at record highs, boosted by increasing expectations that the Federal Reserve would delay the tapering of its quantitative easing after downbeat data.

The Dow rallied 111.42 points, or 0.72 percent, to 15,680.35 points. The S&P 500 advanced 9.84 points, or 0.56 percent, to 1,771.95 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 12.21 points, or 0.31 percent, to 3,952.34 points.

U.S. retail sales for September decreased 0.1 percent from the previous month, the Commerce Department said, missing market consensus.

Meanwhile, U.S. consumer confidence dropped more than expected in October, with Americans spooked by the latest fiscal stalemate in Washington, the Conference Board said Tuesday.

U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) fell 0.1 percent in September, the Labor Department said Tuesday, logging the first drop since April.

The string of weak data strengthened market expectations that the U.S. central bank will vote to extend the current stimulus into next year during its two-day policy meeting starting on Tuesday.

Among other data, the 10-City and 20-City composite home price indices both increased 12.8 percent in August on a year-on-year basis, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released by S&P Dow Jones Indices Tuesday. And U.S. business inventories edged up 0.3 percent in August, the Commerce Department said.

In corporate earnings, Pfizer Inc. shares rose 1.66 percent to 31.25 U.S. dollars a share, after the largest drugmaker in the world reported adjusted third-quarter earnings that topped expectations. But its revenues in the third quarter fell 2 percent to 12.6 billion dollars from the year-ago period.

Apple shares dipped 2.49 percent to 516.68 dollars after the tech giant announced its closely-watched earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2013 fiscal year after Monday's closing bell, which showed the iPhone maker's revenues and profit beat expectations, but gross margin guidance for the next quarter fell short of market estimates.

On other markets, oil prices moved down Tuesday as analysts forecast U.S. crude stockpiles would rise due to the strong increase in shale oil production.

The Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department's statistical arm, will release its report covering U.S. crude supplies of last week on Wednesday. Markets expected that U.S. crude inventories would continue to rise.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery decreased 48 cents to settle at 98.2 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for December delivery lost 60 cents to close at 109.01 dollars a barrel.

The U.S. dollar rose across the board on profit-taking operations by investors ahead of the Fed's policy meeting announcement that will come on Wednesday afternoon.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.3748 dollars from 1.3087 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.6074 dollars from 1.6159 dollars.

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped Tuesday on mixed economic figures. The most active gold contract for December delivery dropped 6.7 dollars, or 0.5 percent, to settle at 1,345.5 dollars per ounce.

Source: Xinhuanet