U.S. stocks struggle to maintain gains in Monday's final hour of trading

All three major U.S. stock indexes lost most of their earlier gains as the last hour of Monday's trading got underway and investors weighed the possibility of at least one more Federal Reserve rate hike this year. Dow industrials were up by less than 0.1% or 18 points, after largely losing an intraday gain of almost 107 points. The S&P 500 was up by just 3 points, while the Nasdaq Composite was higher by just 2 points. The Fed's next announcement is scheduled for Wednesday, when policy makers are unlikely to change the fed funds rate from the current level of 5.25%-5.5%, but release their rate and economic projections.

-Vivien Lou Chen

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09-18-23 1513ET

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