Sluggish Stocks Anticipate Today’s Fed Meeting

Stocks edged higher Monday in another lackluster summer session, struggling against a weak bond market as investors awaited today’s Federal Reserve meeting amid expectations there would be no surprises.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 9.99 to 5,699.44. The blue-chip barometer had meandered almost unchanged through the session after surrendering an early 15-point gain.

Broad-market indexes were mostly higher, but the Nasdaq market slipped as technology shares continued to lag the broad market’s rebound from July’s rout.

But the session, one of the year’s slowest, was mostly a nonevent, the only broad factor being Tuesday’s key Fed meeting on interest rate policy. But after a stream of economic signals pointing to mild inflation, most analysts expected the Fed would not be persuaded to raise interest rates to cool off the economy.

And because optimism about the Fed meeting - usually a source of intense investor anxiety - has already been factored into bond and stock prices in recent weeks, there’s little upside potential if the Fed leaves rates where they are.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Monday:

NYSE

AT&T, down 1-3/8 at 54-1/8.

Associated Group (Nasdaq), up 4-3/4 at 30-1/4.

Alex J. Mandl, a man some analysts expected to be AT&T’s next leader, is quitting as president and chief operating officer to join Associated, a small but ambitious wireless communications company. Pittsburgh-based Associated has investments in several Mexican wireless companies and plans to develop high-capacity wireless networks in U.S. cities.

CasTech Aluminum Group, up 5-3/8 at 20-1/4.

Commonwealth Aluminum (Nasdaq), up 1-3/8 at 15-7/8.

CasTech is being acquired by Commonwealth for about $272.7 million, or $20.50 a share. CasTech, based in Long Beach, and Commonwealth, based in Louisville, Ky., both make aluminum sheet.

Wal-Mart Stores, down 1 at 26-7/8.

The department store chain increased its stock buyback program by $50 million, raising to $200 million the total amount authorized for repurchases. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer said it has acquired about $130 million in stock under its current plan.

NASDAQ

BioTime, up 3-1/2 at 21.

The company received FDA clearance to begin advanced clinical trials on Hextend, a device designed to help maintain blood pressure and other physiological measurements at certain levels during surgery. BioTime said two trials will be held, each involving 75 patients.