After scoring moderate gains, the equity markets headed slightly south following the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) announcement of no fresh action to boost the slowing economy, pushing the blue-chip Dow below 13,000 points.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 31.26 points, or 0.24 percent, at 12,977.42 in closing trade.

The S&P 500-stock index fell 3.85 points (0.28 percent) to 1,375.47 and the tech-rich Nasdaq dropped 19.31 (0.66 percent) to 2,920.21.

"The FOMC today disappointed by announcing nothing new to stimulate the economy, not even an extension of its rate guidance, which remains late 2014, despite the market now expecting rates will remain in the current target range through the middle of 2015," said Chris Low at FTN Financial.