U.S. Stocks May Move To Upside As Fed Decision Looms

(RTTNews) - Stocks may move to the upside in early trading on Monday, adding to the modest gains posted during last Friday's session. The major index futures are currently pointing to a slightly higher open for the markets, with the S&P 500 futures up by 0.1 percent.

Optimism about the outlook for interest rates may contribute to initial strength on Wall Street ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting this week.

With the Fed widely expected to lower interest rates by another quarter point, traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the likelihood of further rate cuts next year.

CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 89.2 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point on Wednesday but a 70.3 percent chance the central bank will leave rates unchanged in January.

After ending Thursday's choppy trading session little changed, stocks saw modest strength during trading on Friday. With the upward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached their best closing levels in a month.

The major averages gave back ground after an early advance but remained in positive territory. The Dow rose 104.05 points or 0.2 percent to 47,954.99, the Nasdaq climbed 72.99 point or 0.3 percent to 23,578.13 and the S&P 500 increased 13.28 points or 0.2 percent to 6,870.40.

For the week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced by 0.9 percent, the Dow climbed by 0.5 percent and the S&P 500 rose by 0.3 percent.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index crept up by 0.2 percent and China's Shanghai Composite Index rose by 0.5 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped by 1.2 percent.

The major European stock indexes are also on opposite sides of the unchanged line. While the German DAX Index is up by 0.3 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index are both down by 0.1 percent.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are sliding $0.53 to $59.55 a barrel after climbing $0.41 to $60.08 barrel last Friday. Meanwhile, after closing unchanged at $4,243 an ounce in the previous session, gold futures are slipping $11.30 to $4,231.70 an ounce.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 155.60 yen versus the 155.34 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Friday. Against the euro, the dollar is trading at $1,1647 compared to last Friday's $1.1642.