Wall Street gave up a big advance and turned lower Monday as investors suffered a renewed case of the jitters ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting on interest rates later this week.

The stock market, which has seen huge swings in recent weeks, was initially relieved to hear from the National Association of Realtors that existing home sales declined in May by only 0.3 percent to 5.99 million units. The tepid reading was expected, and indicated that the housing sector is still weak – the pace of existing home sales was the slowest in four years; housing inventories rose by 5 percent to the highest level since 1992; and the median home price fell for a record 10th consecutive month.

The data wasn’t enough to keep the stock market afloat, so when crude oil prices rose back above $69 a barrel on news of U.S. refinery outages, many investors chose to take money off the table. High energy prices could translate to accelerating inflation – which investors fear the Fed may use as a reason to raise interest rates later in the year. The Fed is scheduled to meet this Wednesday and Thursday. (AP)