U.S. stocks trade mixed ahead of Fed meeting

U.S. stocks traded mixed in the morning session on Monday, as investors awaited a monetary policy meeting from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 21.57 points, or 0.11 percent, to 19,778.42. The S&P 500 lost 4.01 points, or 0.18 percent, to 2,255.52. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 38.10 points, or 0.70 percent, to 5,406.40.

The U.S. central bank will kick off its December policy meeting on Tuesday. Analysts thought that the Fed raising rates seemed a foregone conclusion, but the Federal Open Market Committee may struggle to communicate what it will do next.

According to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, market expectations for a December rate hike were 97.2 percent.

U.S. stocks posted best weekly performance last week since the Election Day, as the "Trump-rally" carried on and Wall Street has widely expected that the Fed will raise interest rate in its policy meeting this week.

"After five days that might as well be five weeks of continuous gains for the U.S. equity indices, there is some pressure being placed on the broad marketplace this morning," said Stephen Guilfoyle, the president of Sarge986, Monday. Enditem