Wall Street Ends Choppy Session Nearly Flat; Investors Eye Fed, Earnings

U.S. stocks see-sawed on Monday and ended close to unchanged as investors girded for an expected rate hike at a Federal Reserve meeting this week and earnings from several large-cap growth companies.

The S&P 500 technology and consumer discretionary led declines among major S&P sectors.

"Right now we're just in a holding pattern waiting for all those developments to play out," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Stamford, Connecticut.

"Obviously, we're seeing some more weakness in the tech names. People are probably just taking some risk off ahead of the earnings."

The Fed is expected to announce a 75 basis-point rate hike at the end of its two-day monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, effectively ending pandemic-era support for the U.S. economy.

Comments by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell following the announcement will be key. Investors have been worried that an aggressive pace of rate hikes could tip the economy into recession.

This week is expected to be the busiest in the second-quarter reporting period, with results from about 170 S&P 500 companies due. Microsoft Corp and Google-parent Alphabet are due to report Tuesday, while AppleInc and Amazon.com Inc are set for Thursday.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 4.95 points, or 0.13%, to end at 3,966.58 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 50.70 points, or 0.43%, to 11,783.41. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 85.05 points, or 0.27%, to 31,984.34.

S&P 500 earnings are expected to have climbed 6.1% for the second quarter from the year-ago period, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Investors have been concerned about the impact of inflation, currency headwinds and lingering supply chain issues for companies.

Also this week, advance second-quarter gross domestic product data on Thursday is likely to be negative after the U.S. economy contracted in the first three months of the year.

Newmont Corp fell after the miner raised its annual cost forecast and missed its second-quarter profit, hurt by lower gold prices and inflationary pressures.