Stocks Opened Flat as Fed Meeting Loomed

U.S. stocks opened little changed on Monday as investors remained on the sidelines ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 17.26 points, or 0.08%, to 20,885.72. The S&P 500 was off 0.51 point, or 0.02%, to 2,372.09. The Nasdaq Composite was up 3.77 points, or 0.06%, to 5,865.50.

Oil hovered around three-month lows on Monday, as rising U.S. inventories and drilling activity offset optimism over OPEC’s efforts to restrict crude output. Brent crude was down 7 cents on the day, at $51.30 a barrel by 1202 GMT, having hit a session trough of $50.85. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) fell 15 cents to $48.34 a barrel.

U.S. chipmaker Intel (INTC) agreed to buy driverless technology firm Mobileye (MBLY) for $15.3 billion on Monday, positioning itself for a dominant role in the autonomous-driving sector after missing the market for mobile phones.