U.S. stocks edge higher as investors look to Fed’s rate meeting

U.S. stocks are muted as investors look toward next week’s meeting of the Federal Reserve.

At 10:19 ET (14:19 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 78 points or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 was flat and the NASDAQ Composite was up 0.1%.

Investors are trying to assess the chances of the Fed raising interest rates again next week after raising them at consecutive meetings since last spring. Data show the economy is slowing, but the labor market remains tight, complicating the Fed’s decision making.

Stocks rallied on Friday after a report that wage growth moderated last month. That gave some investors hope that the Fed could decide to pause rate hiking at next week’s meeting. The debt ceiling deal that President Joe Biden signed into law over the weekend also helped lift sentiment.

The ISM services index read 50.3, which was below expectations and the reading from April.

Futures traders are putting a 75% probability on the Fed pausing next week. That doesn’t mean the end of interest rate increases, though. The traders are betting on the probability that there will be a rate hike in July.

Shares of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) were rising 1.3% ahead of the company’s software developer conference, where it is expected to unveil its mixed reality headset and talk about its artificial intelligence plans.

Oil company stocks also rose after the weekend’s meeting of major oil producing nations, where Saudi Arabia agreed to cut another one million barrels a day of production in July and other allies extended existing production goals into next year. Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) rose 0.3%.

Oil was rising. Crude Oil WTI Futures were up 0.7% to $72.10 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futures rose 0.6% to $76.56 a barrel. Gold rose 0.2% to $1,973.

U.S. stocks edge higher as investors look to Fed’s rate meeting