STOCKS COLLAPSE INTO THE CLOSE: Here's What You Need To Know

Stocks finished in the red on Wednesday after an ugly last hour of trade that saw the average go from roughly unchanged to lows of the day. The big event on Wednesday was the Fed's latest monetary policy statement, that saw the Fed largely keep its statement in tact from the December meeting.

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 17,202, -189, (-1.1%)
• S&P 500: 2,002.5, -27, (-1.3%)
• Nasdaq: 4,637.9, -43.5, (-0.9%)

And now the, top stories on Wednesday:

1. The Fed will remain patient. In the Fed's latest monetary policy statement the Fed said that it would still be "patient" in looking to raise rates and added that the economy still continues to expand at a "solid pace" as labor market conditions continue to improve. The Fed did acknowledge, however, that inflation expectations have fallen "substantially" and that "international" developments bear monitoring, giving the statement would could be seen as a dovish tilt to the statement, which was not accompanied by a press conference from Chair Yellen.

2. Also in central bank news, the Royal Bank of New Zealand kept rates unchanged, and said that the value of the kiwi dollar remains "unjustified," which sent the kiwi tumbling to a three-year low against the dollar.

3. Crude oil got slammed again, falling more than 4% and closing in on $44 a barrel as oil still cannot find a bottom. Data from the EIA on Wednesday showed that oil inventories are at their highest level in "at least 80 year." This followed new from the API on Tuesday that showed crude inventories rose by 13 million last week.

4. S&P put Greece's credit rating on review with negative implications as the financial situation in Greece remains uncertain following the election of Syriza, which is against the austerity measures which have been imposed on Greece, over the weekend. In a statement, S&P said its action, "reflects our view that some of the economic and budgetary policies advocated by the newly elected Greek government, led by the left-wing Syriza party, are incompatible with the policy framework agreed between the previous government and official creditors."

5. Layoffs at IBM have started. Business Insider's Julie Bort reports that layoffs at the company have started, just a few days after the company flat-out denied a report that the company was going to lay off 100,000 employees. IBM has said that it will lay off thousands of workers, however, and on a website for a union seeking to represent IBM workers, employees have been discussing their experiences with the layoffs that have begun at the company.