Wall Street closes mixed before Fed meeting

Shares fell nearly across the board, with energy stocks leading declines across 10 S&P 500 sectors and the consumer discretionary sector the lone gainer, helped by a 1.84% gain in Target (TGT.N).

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 19.31 points, or 0.1 percent, to 18,473.75.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 2.60 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,166.58.

The S&P 500 was down 9.35 points, or 0.43 percent, at 2,165.68.

The S&P 500 is down 8.45 points, or 0.4 percent.

U.S. markets will be dominated today by news on internet search giant Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO), whose shares are up 0.28% in pre-market to US$39.49.

McDonald’s shares fell 3.25% after it said second-quarter sales at United States restaurants open at least 13 months rose 1.8%, below analysts’ forecasts.

Wall Street marked its fourth-straight week of gains and the S&P 500 notched a new closing high on Friday, helped by telecom stocks and strong economic data. The price of crude fell $1.06, or 2.4 percent, to close at $43.13 a barrel. Second-quarter GDP and housing data are among the major reports due later in the week.

“This is a broad, but benign, sell-off”, said Ryan Larson, head of US equity trading for RBC Global Asset Management.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) begins a two-day meeting later in the day to decide whether the U.S. While analysts expect the Fed to maintain interest rates, they did say recently that the strength in US economic data coupled together with the recovery of investor sentiment since Britain’s referendum to leave the European Union, have revived the possibility of a rate hike later this year. “So, if there is a downward revision on the GDP number, the rate hike will be out of question for this year”. “What we see is the market catching its breath a little”.

Wall Street ended lower on Monday as weak oil prices weighed on energy shares. On the Nasdaq, 1,541 issues fell and 1,085 advanced.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (GT) jumped 4.2% after the company beat earnings estimates. Inc. shares were lower and Verizon Communications Inc.’s slipped after the Internet portal agreed to sell its main web business to the wireless carrier. USA crude oil is down 12 percent this month. Its shares fell 12 cents, or 0.52 per cent, to $22.81.

Brent crude, used to price global oils, fell 1.40 dollars (£1.06) to 43.47 dollars (£32.90) a barrel in London. Stocks in mainland China also fell. The dollar ticked up to 106.07 Japanese yen from 105.86 yen, and the euro dipped to $1.0996 from $1.1013.