It might be a long month

NEW YORK – June will be a long month for investors who are cranky about rising interest rates and skyrocketing oil prices.

A pair of watershed events scheduled for the last two days of the month – a Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates and the formal handover of power in Iraq – are likely to keep Wall Street in a holding pattern for another three weeks.

Already facing a backdrop of indecision, few investors will want to make big moves ahead of such major catalysts.

The month may shape up much as this past holiday-shortened week did, Hogan said. Trading was thin as investors waited for a mid-quarter update from Intel Corp. and the Labor Department’s report for May. When all was said and done, the major indexes posted only modest changes.

The Dow Jones industrials ended the week up 54.37, or 0.5 percent, at 10,242.82. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.82, or 0.2 percent, to close at 1,122.50.

The Nasdaq shed 8.12, or 0.4 percent, during the week, closing Friday at 1,978.62.