Federal Reserve officials meeting in Washington

The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee will hold a scheduled summer meeting in Washington on Tuesday, one day after Wall Street's worst day since 2008, and four days after the United States lost its AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor’s.

Bloomberg reports that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues "are weighing the use of more untested policy tools after two rounds of bond buying totaling $2.3 trillion failed to spur sufficient economic growth and reduce unemployment below 9 percent." Reuters adds that although no major policy changes are expected Tuesday, "investors may return to selling if there's no indication that help is on the way."

A statement from the committee due out at 2:15 p.m. Eastern time will be closely watched. The Los Angeles Times reports that some analysts expect the statement to suggest that "the U.S. economy is better than it looks" by pointing to factors like oil prices, which are at their lowest point since November.

Anshul Pradhan, fixed-income strategist at Barclays Capital in New York, told the Times he expects the statement "to talk in detail about possible options” if the economy needs more help.

Bernanke is not scheduled to give a press briefing today, the way he might after the Fed releases updated economic forecasts, Bloomberg reports. The next economic forecast is scheduled to be released after the Fed meets on November 1st and 2nd.

U.S. stock indexes fell sharply on Monday, the first day of trading since Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 635 points, or 5.6 percent, the sixth biggest one-day drop on record. The S&P 500 dropped 6.7 percent, and Nasdaq Composite fell 6.9 percent.

Earlier Tuesday, Asian markets fell as analysts announced that "panic" selling was taking over.