NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks closed sharply lower on Tuesday, ahead of the completion of the two-day regular FOMC meeting which on Wednesday is likely to hike official interest rates by at least 75 basis points.

"Investors have pretty well digested the 75 basis point hike tomorrow but perhaps there's some concern that the rhetoric at the press conference could be still extremely hawkish," Cresset Capital's Jack Ablin told CNBC Tuesday.

The Dow Jones industrials plummeted 313.45 points or 1.01 percent to 30,706.23.

The Nasdaq Composite declined 109.97 points or 0.95 percent to 11,425.05.

The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 43.94 points or 1.13 percent to 3,855.93.

The U.S. dollar gathered steam on Tuesday in anticipation of Wednesday's rate hike. U.S. treasuries fell as yields jumped. The euro traded lower at 0.9976. The British pound slipped to 1.1384. The Japanese yen edged lower at 143.68. The Swiss franc was little changed at 0.9640.

The Canadian dollar dipped to 1.3361. The Australian dollar fell to 0.6692. The New Zealand dollar was sharply lower at 0.5899.

On overseas equity markets, the German Dax dropped 1.03 percent. The CAC 40 in Paris, France was down 1.35 percent. In London, the FTSE 100 declined 0.61 percent.

The Australian All Ordinaries surged 81.50 points or 1.17 percent to 7,030.10.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 jumped 120.77 points, or 0.44 percent to 27,688.42.

New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 climbed 38.44 points or 0.33 percent to 11,570.43.

The South Korean Kospi Composite advanced 13.62 points or 0.58 percent to 2,369.28.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng gained 215.45 points or 1.16 percent to 18,781.42.

The Shanghai Composite in mainland China rose 6.80 points or 0.22 percent to close Tuesday at 3,122.41.