Wall Street today: S&P 500, Nasdaq falls, Dow Jones rises, Fed policy in focus

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq edged lower while Dow Jones rose on Monday, ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision later this week.

Investors cautiously awaited the Federal Reserve's first interest rate cut since 2020 on Wednesday.

At 09:50 a.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 260.54 points, or 0.63 per cent, to 41,654.32, the S&P 500 lost 1.70 points, or 0.02 per cent, to 5,625.06 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 123.01 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 17,564.41.

At the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 41.4 points, or 0.10 per cent, to 41,435.17. The S&P 500 fell 10.8 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 5,615.21, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 110.3 points, or 0.62 per cent, to 17,573.702.

Big Tech stocks declined, pulling the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 lower.

Apple fell 3.7 per cent, Nvidia lost 3.8 per cent, Amazon.com lost 0.70 per cent, and Broadcom dropped 2.2 per cent.

Tesla shares fell 1.7 per cent.

Intel Corp climbed 2.7 per cent after a report showed the chipmaker has officially qualified for as much as $3.5 billion in federal grants to make semiconductors for the US Department of Defense.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 3.64 per cent from 3.66 per cent late on Friday. The 2-year yield fell to 3.55 per cent from 3.59 per cent.

Crude oil

Oil prices rose on Monday as traders weighed a drop in Libyan exports.

Brent futures traded near $72 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate was above $69.

Bullion

Gold prices extended gains to an all-time high on Monday on weaker US dollar and the prospect of a big rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

Spot gold was up 0.3 per cent at $2,582.87 an ounce by 9:41 am ET (1341 GMT). US gold futures were steady at $2,610.50.

Spot silver gained 0.6 per cent to $30.84 an ounce.