Investors Await Direction From Fed Meeting
-- Wall Street closed out the week with modest gains Friday, though trading was erratic as encouraging signs of a cooling housing market conflicted with signals of economic strength and left no real clue as to the Federal Reserve's next move on interest rates.</br></br>The Commerce Department reported that new-home sales fell 10.5 percent in February, the biggest one-month drop in nine years. With slowing housing demand, Wall Street thought that would make it easier for the Fed to stop raising rates soon.</br></br>A surge in big-ticket factory orders raised questions, however, about whether demand would hold steady, possibly increasing pricing pressure and the chance for higher inflation. The Fed meets Monday and Tuesday, and it is expected to raise the nation's benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 4.75 percent.</br></br>While questions remain as to how many more rate increases the Fed will implement, analysts believe stocks still have room to move higher, thanks to a decent economy and the chance for another quarter of strong corporate earnings.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average rose 9.68, or 0.1 percent, to 11,279.97. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 1.28, or 0.1 percent, to 1302.95. The Nasdaq composite index rose 12.67, or 0.6 percent, to 2312.82.