US close: Mixed performance on the Street ahead of Fed announcement

Wall Street stocks turned in a mixed performance on Monday, as investors turned their attention towards the Federal Reserve and trade talks between US and Chinese officials which were scheduled to kick-off the next day.

At the close, the Dow Jones was up 0.11% at 27,221.35, while the S&P 500 was 0.16% weaker at 3,020.97 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.44% lower at 8,293.33.

The Dow closed 28.90 points firmer on Monday after also closing stronger on Friday with focus in the early part of the week on the Federal Reserve.

Investors expected policymakers to announce a 0.25% rate cut on Wednesday and were also keeping their ears to the ground in order to pick up any hints as to whether or not the central bank would signal more cuts for over the coming months.

Donald Trump turned to Twitter on Monday to take a swipe at the Fed ahead of its July meeting, lambasting the central bank for what he labelled as oppressive interest rates.

"The EU and China will further lower interest rates and pump money into their systems, making it much easier for their manufacturers to sell product," he Tweeted.

"In the meantime, and with very low inflation, our Fed does nothing - and probably will do very little by comparison. Too bad!"

Elsewhere, officials from the US and China were scheduled to meet in Shanghai later in the week for their first face-to-face talks since agreeing to a truce at the G-20 meeting last month. However, expectations for the two largest economies in the world to lock down a comprehensive trade agreement were low.

In terms of corporate news, drugmaker Pfizer announced plans to divest its off-patent drug business and pair it with generic pharmaceuticals manufacturer Mylan, while meat alternative manufacturer Beyond Meat reported mixed second-quarter earnings and revenues after the bell but upped its full-year 2019 revenue outlook.

On the data front, the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index improved to -6.3 in July from -12.1 in June. However, the data was seemingly overlooked by investors ahead of the critical FOMC announcements.