Stocks tread water as traders await Fed word on interest rates

NEW YORK - Stocks stalled Monday, ending mostly lower after rising oil prices and ongoing worries about the financial sector gave investors little reason to buy on the day before a Federal Reserve meeting.

Disappointment that Saudi Arabia is not boosting production by more than 200,000 barrels a day sent oil prices higher, fanning concerns about inflation. Light, sweet crude rose $1.38 to settle at $136.74 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Energy companies rose but sectors like airlines and financials logged sizable losses.

With little economic data arriving, investors focused on the price of oil and the Fed's two-day meeting, which lets out on Wednesday. Most investors expect the central bank to keep its key federal funds rate on hold, and in its economic statement, emphasize the rising threat of inflation.

Denis Amato, chief investment officer at Ancora Advisors in Cleveland, questions how the Fed will balance weakness in areas of the economy like the financial sector with concerns about the weak dollar and the rising inflation that low interest rates cause.

"We think the Fed is sort of in a quandary here ... if they raise rates, they run the risk of having some negative impact on the economy and if they don't raise rates, they run the risk of negatively influencing the dollar. That trend is driving up oil, which is impairing the economy," he said.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.33, or less than 0.01 percent, to 11,842.36.

Broader stock indicators ended mixed after a day of back-and-forth trading. The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged up 0.07, or 0.01 percent, to 1,318.00, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 20.35, or 0.85 percent, to 2,385.74.

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