Tuesday's markets: Stocks, dollar finish mixed as bonds ease
Stock prices finished mixed in a featureless session as investors turned their attention to the Federal Reserve and the future path of interest rates. Bond prices eased and the dollar was mixed.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4.71 to 3862.70, the average's sixth-consecutive decline. The Standard & Poor's 500stock index gained 0.05 to 465.86, the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index added 0.23 to 253.70 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 3.69 to 763.20.</br></br>With the Fed's policy-making meeting less than one week away, interest-rate angst has infected the market. Traders reported sporadic earnings-related activity, but most trading moves were muted ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee Meeting set for Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. Most economists expect the FOMC to recommend a boost in short-term rates.</br></br>"People are clearly waiting on the Fed," said Alan Bond, president of Bond, Procope Capital Management. "I think we may tread water going into the Fed meeting, with a modestly upward bias."</br></br>Analysts added that worries about the proposed Mexican bailout package, as well as lingering uncertainty about how the Japanese earthquake might affect U.S. markets, contributed to yesterday's directionless trading.