NEW YORK (AFX) -- U.S. stocks closed mixed Monday, after a wary session spent awaiting a Federal Reserve decision on interest rates expected the following day, as modest strength in the technology sector allowed the Nasdaq Composite Index to end a bit higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 29.86 points at 11,250.11. .
The Nasdaq Composite added 2.76 points to 2,315.58.
The S&P 500 Index fell 1.34 point to 1,301.61.
The central focus of Monday's session was the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's interest-rate-setting body, which began a two-day policy meeting. The FOMC is widely expected to lift its key short-term rate by a quarter percentage point to 4.75%. on Tuesday. .
'A lot of people are waiting for the Fed, but I'm sure there is going to be no surprise there,' said Michael Metz, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer & Co.
Metz said the most important catalyst for equities is likely to be first-quarter earnings season and whether companies will be able to maintain margins at near record levels: 'People like myself are skeptical that they can be maintained here, particularly with productivity slowing down.'
On the broader market for equities, decliners outpaced advancers by 9 to 7 on the New York Stock Exchange, while rising and falling stocks were in roughly equal balance on the Nasdaq.
By sector, airlines , gold stocks and transportation stocks posted some of the most significant gains.
Drug stocks and utilities trended lower.
Volume was 1.36 billion shares on the Big Board and 1.87 billion on the Nasdaq.
The U.S. dollar was slightly higher against the euro, but the greenback was lower against the Japanese yen and other currencies.
The euro was off 0.2% at $1.2010. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar was off 0.6% at 116.69. .
In metals, silver was back in the spotlight, striking a new 22-year peak, and copper ended at its highest-ever level ahead of the Fed meeting. Gold futures rallied to a three-week high, closing up $6.90 at $56.407 an ounce.
Adding to the uptrend, Citigroup raised its forecasts for gold, copper, nickel and aluminum, and said metals are entering the 'sweet spot' of what it termed 'the commodity supercycle.'
In the bond market, long-term Treasury prices remained lower after a somewhat weak auction of $22 billion in new 2-year notes.
The benchmark 10-year note finished down 8/32 at 98 13/32, with its yield , which moves in the opposite direction to price, at 4.703%, up from 4.67% at Friday's close.
In energy, crude futures fell, finding some relief in news that Nigerian rebels freed three foreign oil workers who had been held hostage for more than a month.
The workers had been held by a group calling itself the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which has attacked pipelines and kidnapped a number of western workers as it seeks to keep more of Nigeria's oil money out of the hands of foreign companies.
The benchmark May contract closed down 10 cents at $64.16 a barrel. .
Stocks on the move
Lucent Technologies Inc. closed up 2 cents at $3.08 as investors continued to mull a possible merger with France's Alcatel . U.S.-listed shares of Alcatel finished down 1.7% at $15.43.
Intel Corp. shares advanced 14 cents to close at $19.73.
Goldman Sachs analyst James Covello said he was becoming 'a bit more bullish' on the chipmaker and 'more bearish' on rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. , reflecting his belief that Intel's new desktop central processing unit will help it stop AMD's market-share gains in the second half of 2006.
General Motors Corp. saw its shares climb 1.2% to $22.93 in what will be a crucial week for the troubled automaker.
First of all, the company is poised to file its delayed annual report, according to The Wall Street Journal. Second, GM's board is expected to meet early this week to discuss the potential sale of its GMAC financing arm.
Finally, GM will reportedly begin laying off part of its white-collar workforce on Tuesday as part of its aim to reduce its salaried workers by 7% this year, or at least by 2,500 positions.
Walgreen Co. shares rose 1.4% to $45.02. The drugstore operator reported an increase in second-quarter profit Monday, as solid sales of Christmas and Valentine's Day merchandise helped partially offset a mild flu season, which damaged pharmacy sales. Overall, sales came in slightly shy of analyst expectations.
Broker action
Several mining companies rallied after Citigroup became more upbeat on industrial metals, upgrading key players Inco , Phelps Dodge Corp. , Alcan and Rio Tinto .
The broker told clients its revised view represents a 'significant' change of opinion on copper and nickel, where it is abandoning its longstanding bearish stance.
Citigroup said the sector will benefit from rising economic growth and structurally tight inventories, with sluggish new capacity additions and recurring operating outages also lending support to prices.
Meanwhile, Circuit City Stores Inc. climbed 39 cents to $24.64 after Lehman Brothers upgraded the electronics retailer to equal-weight from underweight, citing strong industry trends and 'vastly improved' fundamentals. This story was supplied by MarketWatch. For further information see www.marketwatch.com.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 29.86 points at 11,250.11. .
The Nasdaq Composite added 2.76 points to 2,315.58.
The S&P 500 Index fell 1.34 point to 1,301.61.
The central focus of Monday's session was the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's interest-rate-setting body, which began a two-day policy meeting. The FOMC is widely expected to lift its key short-term rate by a quarter percentage point to 4.75%. on Tuesday. .
'A lot of people are waiting for the Fed, but I'm sure there is going to be no surprise there,' said Michael Metz, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer & Co.
Metz said the most important catalyst for equities is likely to be first-quarter earnings season and whether companies will be able to maintain margins at near record levels: 'People like myself are skeptical that they can be maintained here, particularly with productivity slowing down.'
On the broader market for equities, decliners outpaced advancers by 9 to 7 on the New York Stock Exchange, while rising and falling stocks were in roughly equal balance on the Nasdaq.
By sector, airlines , gold stocks and transportation stocks posted some of the most significant gains.
Drug stocks and utilities trended lower.
Volume was 1.36 billion shares on the Big Board and 1.87 billion on the Nasdaq.
The U.S. dollar was slightly higher against the euro, but the greenback was lower against the Japanese yen and other currencies.
The euro was off 0.2% at $1.2010. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar was off 0.6% at 116.69. .
In metals, silver was back in the spotlight, striking a new 22-year peak, and copper ended at its highest-ever level ahead of the Fed meeting. Gold futures rallied to a three-week high, closing up $6.90 at $56.407 an ounce.
Adding to the uptrend, Citigroup raised its forecasts for gold, copper, nickel and aluminum, and said metals are entering the 'sweet spot' of what it termed 'the commodity supercycle.'
In the bond market, long-term Treasury prices remained lower after a somewhat weak auction of $22 billion in new 2-year notes.
The benchmark 10-year note finished down 8/32 at 98 13/32, with its yield , which moves in the opposite direction to price, at 4.703%, up from 4.67% at Friday's close.
In energy, crude futures fell, finding some relief in news that Nigerian rebels freed three foreign oil workers who had been held hostage for more than a month.
The workers had been held by a group calling itself the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which has attacked pipelines and kidnapped a number of western workers as it seeks to keep more of Nigeria's oil money out of the hands of foreign companies.
The benchmark May contract closed down 10 cents at $64.16 a barrel. .
Stocks on the move
Lucent Technologies Inc. closed up 2 cents at $3.08 as investors continued to mull a possible merger with France's Alcatel . U.S.-listed shares of Alcatel finished down 1.7% at $15.43.
Intel Corp. shares advanced 14 cents to close at $19.73.
Goldman Sachs analyst James Covello said he was becoming 'a bit more bullish' on the chipmaker and 'more bearish' on rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. , reflecting his belief that Intel's new desktop central processing unit will help it stop AMD's market-share gains in the second half of 2006.
General Motors Corp. saw its shares climb 1.2% to $22.93 in what will be a crucial week for the troubled automaker.
First of all, the company is poised to file its delayed annual report, according to The Wall Street Journal. Second, GM's board is expected to meet early this week to discuss the potential sale of its GMAC financing arm.
Finally, GM will reportedly begin laying off part of its white-collar workforce on Tuesday as part of its aim to reduce its salaried workers by 7% this year, or at least by 2,500 positions.
Walgreen Co. shares rose 1.4% to $45.02. The drugstore operator reported an increase in second-quarter profit Monday, as solid sales of Christmas and Valentine's Day merchandise helped partially offset a mild flu season, which damaged pharmacy sales. Overall, sales came in slightly shy of analyst expectations.
Broker action
Several mining companies rallied after Citigroup became more upbeat on industrial metals, upgrading key players Inco , Phelps Dodge Corp. , Alcan and Rio Tinto .
The broker told clients its revised view represents a 'significant' change of opinion on copper and nickel, where it is abandoning its longstanding bearish stance.
Citigroup said the sector will benefit from rising economic growth and structurally tight inventories, with sluggish new capacity additions and recurring operating outages also lending support to prices.
Meanwhile, Circuit City Stores Inc. climbed 39 cents to $24.64 after Lehman Brothers upgraded the electronics retailer to equal-weight from underweight, citing strong industry trends and 'vastly improved' fundamentals. This story was supplied by MarketWatch. For further information see www.marketwatch.com.