Stocks were choppy in the lead-up to today's Federal Reserve policy announcement. While the main indexes made a confident move higher after the central bank cut rates by a half-percentage point, a late-day burst of selling pressure sent them into the red at the close.Ahead of this afternoon's rate-cut decision, data from the Census Bureau showed housing starts increased 9.6% in August from the month prior, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.356 million. Building permits, which are a better indicator ...