Investing.com – In a light calendar week stateside, U.S. stocks traded flat with mixed signs on Monday as they attempted to continue to push higher after reaching two-month highs on Friday as investor attention looked forward to the European Central Bank (ECB) policy meeting and market players digested economic policies in China.
At 16:32GMT or 11:32AM ET, the Dow 30 rose 21 points or 0.19%, while the S&P 500 slipped 1 point or 0.03% and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite lost 4 points or 0.0.06%.
Global markets were more focused on Europe as attention shifted from last week’s U.S. employment report to the European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy decision on Thursday and investors digested China's new economic targets announced at the National People's Congress over the weekend.
Yet market players kept the Federal Reserve in the background as decreased expectations for rate hikes this year pared gains in the dollar on Monday. The U.S. Dollar Index, that compares the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, inched forward 0.02% to 97.27. EUR/USD dropped 0.10% to 1.0995, but USD/JPY slipped 0.13% to 113.63, and GBP/USD advanced 0.07% to 1.4237.
A National Association of Business Economics’ (NABE) survey released on Monday revealed that 80% of the 252 economists surveyed did still expect at least one rate hike in 2016. Broken down, 39% said they expect the Fed to raise rates twice this year, 24% forecast just one increase and 17% were placing bets on at least three.
Though NABE President Lisa Emsbo-Mattingly said that a large and growing majority still expect rate hikes this year, she noted that “respondents on balance expect fewer increases in 2016 than they had predicted in the August 2015 survey”.
Traders will pay attention to speeches from a pair of Fed officials on Monday to attempt to judge the balance of opinion among policymakers on the prospect of further rate hikes.
Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard is due to deliver a speech titled "Economic Outlook, Liquidity and Resilience" at the Institute of International Bankers Annual Washington Conference, in Washington D.C. at 18:00GMT, or 1:00PM ET, Monday.
At the same time, Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer will deliver a speech titled "Reflections on Macroeconomics Then and Now" at the National Association for Business Economics policy conference, in Washington D.C.
Meanwhile, crude maintained its rally on Monday with the Brent barrel hitting a 2016 high at $40. Black gold extended its gains on reports that Genscape data showed a lower-than-expected build in crude inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub.
The move higher built upon data from oilfield services provider Baker Hughes late Friday that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. decreased by eight last week to 392, the 11th straight weekly decline and the lowest level since 2009.
Crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $1.44, or 4.01%, to trade at $37.36 a barrel by 16:40GMT, or 11:40AM ET, while Brent oil advanced $1.50 or 3.90% to $40.23.
Among market movers in M&A activity, DuPont (NYSE:DD) registered the second highest advance on the Dow, surging 2.6% after Bloomberg reported that BASF was considering a bid for the company.
Marvell Technology Group Ltd (NASDAQ:MRVL) also jumped 2.5% after a New York Post article said the company was open to selling itself.