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Stocks rose slightly on Monday as investors looked ahead to a crucial Federal Reserve meeting this week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average retained 57.9 to pause for lunch at 26,147.51.
The S&P 500 eked ahead 4.64 points at 2,891.58
The NASDAQ Composite 48.24 points to 7,844.90, as tech shares gained.
Facebook acquired 2.6%, and Netflix climbed 3.1%, while Amazon advanced 1%. Alphabet and Apple both traded nearly 1% higher.
Disney shares slipped 0.6% after an analyst at Imperial Capital downgraded the stock to in-line from outperform, citing a “record ” valuation.
Shares of auction house Sotheby’s shot up nearly 60% on news it will be bought for $3.7 billion by BidFair USA. Array BioPharma shares also surged nearly 60% after the company was acquired by Pfizer for $10.6 billion.
Equities posted slight gains last week, adding to this month’s strong rally. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ were both up more than 4% in June entering Monday’s session while the Dow was up 5.1%.
The Fed is scheduled to start a two-day monetary policy meeting on Tuesday. Expectations for any policy changes are low, but investors will look for clues about potential rate cuts in July and later in 2019.
Investors are betting on the Fed cutting rates in July and September as well as December. The market has been clamoring for lower rates amid indications of potentially slower economic growth. In theory, lower rates would boost economic growth.
The Fed will make its monetary-policy announcement on Wednesday. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to hold a news conference after the announcement.
Worries over the economy have increased recently after jobs growth and manufacturing activity slowed last month. The U.S. economy is expected to grow by 2.1% in the second quarter
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury gained back lost ground, dropping yields back to Friday’s 2.08%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices slipped 22 cents to $52.29 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices listed lower 10 cents at $1,344.40 U.S. an ounce.
