NEW YORK (AP) – Wall Street pulled back in early trading Tuesday as investors, uneasy before the Federal Reserve’s meeting during the afternoon, cashed in some of their gains from Monday’s big advance.

The August meeting of the Fed’s Open Market Committee, which sets short-term interest rates, follows two weeks of volatile stock trading. Investors have been uneasy about the availability of credit, and the health of subprime loans made to borrowers with weak credit.

While observers don’t expect the Fed will move the benchmark rate from 5.25 percent, where it has been since last summer, many will be looking to the central bank’s economic policy statement for comments about the lending concerns that have prompted big swings in stocks and bonds.

Wall Street was also digesting a Labor Department report that found the productivity of American workers rose to a 1.8 percent annual rate in the spring – more than double the 0.7 percent pace of the first quarter – while wage pressures lessened.

Unit labor costs rose at a 2.1 percent pace, which was the second straight quarter in which wage pressures have cooled. A drop in wage pressures could help assuage some of the Fed’s concerns about inflation.

In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 48.86, or 0.36 percent, at 13,419.92 after soaring 286 points Monday, the latest in a series of triple digit swings the blue chips have made amid investors’ ongoing uneasiness about credit. The Dow was down more than 100 in the early going Tuesday.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 5.56, or 0.38 percent, to 1,462.11, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 7.14, or 0.28 percent, to 2,540.19.
In recent weeks, the major stock market indexes have traded erratically, with the Dow routinely showing triple-digit swings. The frenetic trading follows the stock market’s high seen July 19, when the Dow closed above 14,000 for the first time and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index also saw a record finish.

Bond prices, which move opposite yields, fell Tuesday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.75 percent from 4.74 percent late Monday. Bonds fell sharply Monday amid the stock market rally.

The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Light, sweet crude fell 35 cents to $71.71 in pre-opening electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange a day after tumbling more than 4.5 percent. A week ago, crude closed at a record $78.21 a barrel.

In corporate news, Marsh & McLennan Cos. fell $1.51, or 5.5 percent, at $26.14. The largest U.S. insurance brokerage, turned in a 3 percent increase in its second-quarter profits amid growth in its risk and insurance business and consulting operations. The company also approved a $1.5 billion share-repurchase plan.

Duke Energy Corp. fell 7 cents to $17.83 after it reported second-quarter profit fell 17 percent after it spun off its natural gas business at the beginning of the year.

Among the companies reporting results Tuesday, Cisco Systems Inc. is expected to weigh in after the closing bell. Shares fell 15 cents to $29.35.

Overseas, European markets rose following Monday’s U.S. advance. London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.89 percent, Germany’s DAX index rose 0.32 percent, while France’s CAC-40 rose 0.94 percent. Japan’s Nikkei stock average closed up 0.04 percent.

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