US stocks cautious ahead of the Fed, Dow hits fresh all-time high

On the first trading day of the week, major US equity indices opened mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) hitting a fresh all-time high, while both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq struggled to gain traction ahead of the Fed monetary policy decision.

Although optimism, led by the weekend oil output deal between OPEC and non-OPEC members, triggered a strong rally in crude oil prices but has failed to lift appetite and provide fresh bullish impetus for other riskier-assets, including equities. At the time of writing DJIA gained over 30-points and rose to 19788, while the broader S&P 500 index was flat-lined around Friday's closing level near 2,260 level. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index underperformed the broader indices and lost around 15-point to 5,430.

Investors now turn their focus to the much awaited two-day FOMC monetary policy meeting, starting Tuesday, and uncertainty around the central bank's monetary policy stance in 2017 seems to be weighing on investor sentiment. The Fed is widely expected to lift the target range for its Federal-funds rate, for the first time since December 2016, to between 0.5% and 0.75%.