Stocks were mixed in early trading Monday, as investors braced for a two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve this week where it’s expected the central bank will raise interest rates sharply to combat inflation.
The S&P 500 index was up less than 0.1%, fluctuating between gains and losses, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 0.2%.
On Wednesday, most economists expect the Fed to announce its second 0.75% point increase in its short-term rate in a row, a hefty increase that it hasn’t otherwise implemented since 1994. That will put the Fed’s benchmark rate in a range of 2.25% to 2.5%, the highest since 2018.
