US open: Stocks trade higher as investors look ahead to Fed meeting

Wall Street stocks traded higher early on Monday as market participants remained focussed on the Federal Reserve's ongoing fight against inflation.

As of 1515 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.53% at 33,655.36, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.35% to 3,948.14 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.26% firmer at 11,032.86.

The Dow opened 178.90 points higher on Monday, extending gains recorded in the previous session.

Stocks traded higher as traders looked ahead to the release of November's consumer price index on Tuesday, with investors looking for any hints that inflation may be slowing, and the central bank's two-day meeting, with the Fed expected to announce another, albeit smaller, rate hike on Wednesday.

AvaTrade's Naeem Aslam said: "Traders are largely hesitant to place any bigger bets ahead of two important economic events taking place this week. Firstly, we are going to see a fresh reading of the US CPI which is likely to set the trading tone between investors and traders. Secondly, the Fed will announce its monetary policy decision this week. This will be the key event for this week. So far, the expectations are more on the optimistic side when it comes to the US inflation data and the Fed meeting. If anything changes from this, the US stock market is likely to experience a complete meltdown."

In the corporate space, shares in Horizon Therapeutics surged in early trading after news broke that the firm has struck a deal to be acquired by Amgen in a deal that values the business at more than $27.0bn on a fully diluted basis.

On the macro front, November consumer inflation expectations will be published at 1600 GMT and November's monthly budget statement will follow at 1900 GMT.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com