U.S. stocks open narrowly mixed ahead of Fed meeting

U.S. stocks opened fractionally mixed on Monday as Wall Street eagerly awaited the Federal Reserve' s policy meeting scheduled to begin on Tuesday.

With no major economic data due out Monday, investors mainly focused on the U.S. central bank' s monetary policy meeting, which is widely expected to end with the first Fed rate hike in nine years.

The U.S. Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said recently that the continuing improvement in the labor market helps strengthen confidence that inflation will move back to the objective of 2 percent over the medium term.

"The market is expected to remain problematic at least through Wednesday and the Fed announcement," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

On Friday, oil prices dived to near sever-year low after the decision of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to keep crude production pumping at current level in an already oversupplied market.

U.S. stocks closed sharply lower amid rate hike concerns on Friday, as the declining crude prices knocked down shares of major oil companies.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.61 points, or 0.01 percent, to 17,266.82. The S&P 500 edged up 0.14 point, or 0.01 percent, to 2,012.51. The Nasdaq Composite Index edged down 0.12 point, or less than 0.01 percent, to 4,933.35. Endi