Stocks barely move ahead of Fed meeting

Stocks finished a quiet session little changed Monday as investors’ anticipation of the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates muted their reaction to lower oil prices and a trio of acquisitions.

With no new reports to offer clues about the economy, investors traded cautiously ahead of the Fed’s latest move on interest rates when policymakers meet Wednesday. Last Friday, signs of moderating job growth fueled hopes that a cooling economy would prompt the central bank to consider pausing its rate tightening.

“I think you’ll see a lot of waffling” ahead of the Fed meeting, said Rick Pendergraft, an equity trader at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. “Everyone is pretty much expecting a quarter percentage point lift this time, but it’s up in the air for the June meeting.”

Meanwhile, the market showed some excitement over Wachovia’s $25 billion takeover of Golden West Financial Corp. and Thermo’s $10.6 billion offer for Fisher Scientific International Inc. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. also made its first acquisition of an overseas company.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 6.80, or 0.06 percent, to 11,584.54, its highest close in more than six years. The Dow is 138 points from its all-time high of 11,722.98, reached on Jan. 14, 2000.

Broader stock indicators stood near their highs from February 2001. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 1.10, or 0.08 percent, to 1,324.66, and the Nasdaq composite index gained 2.42, or 0.1 percent, to 2,344.99.

The interest rate debate weighed on the dollar and bonds, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note ticking up to 5.12 percent from 5.11 percent late Friday. The U.S. dollar plunged against the Japanese yen and fell versus European currencies.

Analysts say Wall Street’s nervousness about the Fed’s next move on interest rates is restraining stocks even though the Dow is within reach of its all-time high. While most believe the central bank will raise the nation’s key lending rate to 5 percent Wednesday, investors will be picking apart the Fed’s policy statement for signs of whether more hikes are coming.

Advancing issues were slightly behind decliners on the New York Stock Exchange, where preliminary consolidated volume of 2.24 billion shares trailed the 2.4 billion shares that changed hands on Friday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 0.23, or 0.03 percent, to 781.60.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average surged 1.69 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.4 percent, Germany’s DAX index added 0.24 percent and France’s CAC-40 was lower by 0.08 percent.