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New York - Wall Street stocks finished little changed on Monday as the market absorbed losses in petroleum stocks while looking ahead to a two-day US Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting that begins on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 12.53 points (0.07%) to 16 817.94.
The broad-based S&P 500 dipped 2.95 (0.15%) to 1 961.63 , while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 2.22 (0.05%) to 4 484.93.
Investors are looking to Wednesday's Fed meeting to see if the central bank will follow through on its plan to end its bond-buying program and offer any additional comment on its expectations to raise benchmark interest rates in 2015.
Investors hammered petroleum stocks, including oil services company Halliburton (-6.1%) and Marathon Oil Co (-4.4%), after Goldman Sachs slashed its forecast for first-quarter 2015 oil prices. Dow members ExxonMobil and Chevron both dropped 0.8%.
Dow component Merck fell 2.0% as it reported a 20.4%t drop in third-quarter earnings to $895m on revenues that came in below expectations. The results translated into earnings of 90 cents per share, 2c above analyst forecasts.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals of Canada advanced 1.1% as it signalled it would raise its bid for Allergan to $60bn. Botox-maker Allergan lost 1.0% following earnings that translated into $1.78 per share, 10c above analyst forecasts.
Banana producer Chiquita Brands International gained 1.4% after announcing it agreed to be bought by Brazilian juice exporter Cutrale Group and investment bank Safra Group in a $1.3bn deal.
The deal came after Chiquita shareholders on Friday rejected a separate plan to merge with Irish fruit rival Fyffes.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury dipped to 2.26% from 2.27% on Friday, while the 30-year dropped to 3.03% from 3.05%.
