US stocks higher to open heavy week of earnings, Fed meeting

NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks edged higher early Monday to open a week dominated with tech earnings and a Federal Reserve meeting expected to keep interest rates unchanged.

Companies reporting this week include Apple, Facebook parent Meta, Tesla and Boeing.

“People are watching the Fed, but no one thinks the Fed will actually do anything at this meeting,” said FHN Financial’s Chris Low.

“It’s really about how they choose to communicate and what they say about potential future policy decisions.”

About 10 minutes into trading the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 49,282.78, up 0.4 percent.

READ MORE: Wall Street Week Ahead: Fed, big earnings week loom for markets as global tensions muddy outlook

The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.4 percent to 6,945.80, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.3 percent to 23,580.07.

Besides earnings, markets are also keeping tabs on political fallout from the weekend shooting of a second American citizen in Minneapolis by agents under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Multiple US senators said they would vote against upcoming government spending bills to keep funding the Department of Homeland Security, raising the possibility of another government shutdown beginning January 31.