Stocks stabilize ahead of the Fed’s upcoming meeting.

Stocks on Wall Street began trading on Tuesday with a modest gain, a day after a rush of selling pushed the S&P 500 into a bear market, leaving the index more than 20 percent below its recent peak.

The index rose 0.3 percent in early trading, even as European markets reversed their own gains and sunk deeper into the red. Markets in the Asia-Pacific region had recovered from the worst of their declines Tuesday, but still ended lower.