US stocks slip as investors weigh global growth concerns against Fed stimulus plans

• US stocks slipped Wednesday, adding to Tuesday's losses.
• Wednesday's session got underway with a shortfall in Chinese retail sales for August.
• Investors are also anticipating a Fed announcement on tapering.

US stocks moved slightly lower Wednesday following disappointing data from China, the world's second-largest economy, while investors prepared for the Federal Reserve's anticipated plan to start drawing down stimulus measures.

Investors started Wednesday's session with Chinese retail sales growth slowing to 2.5% year-on-year in August, missing the 7% growth expected by economists in a Bloomberg poll.

Major indexes continued their slide from Tuesday's session. The S&P 500 fell even after data showed US consumer price index inflation cooled to 5.3% in August from a 13-year high of 5.4% in July.

Here's where US indexes stood shortly after 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday:

• S&P 500: 4,438.71, down 0.09%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 34,568.53, down 0.03% (9.04 points)
• Nasdaq Composite: 15,001.88, down 0.25%

"Basically, traders are still worried that despite the slow inflation reading and a weak set of US NFP data, the Fed is still likely to start the tapering this year. It is still possible that next week we may get some timeline from the Fed in relation to their tapering of the loose monetary policy," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade, in a note.

Around the markets, gold rose 0.2% to $1,792.71 per ounce. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury note slipped to 1.28%.

Oil prices climbed, with West Texas Intermediate crude up 1.9% at $71.90 per barrel.

Bitcoin rose 9% to $47,427.58.