By Niket Nishant and Tharuniyaa Lakshmi
Sept 16 (Reuters) - The Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 edged higher following a two-day slide, as lower oil prices offered some relief during a tense wait for the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision on Wednesday.
Energy stocks fell, while technology shares were mixed. Nvidia and Apple were up marginally.
The rate move, scheduled to be announced at 2 p.m. ET, will be crucial to investor sentiment at a time when elevated Treasury yields, inflation and the
escalating Middle East conflict have kept risk appetite in check.
Investors are also expected to focus on Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's remarks for clues on the inflation outlook and the likely path of rates.
While traders see a nearly 93% chance of an increase, according to the CME FedWatch tool, uncertainty persists.
Fed Chair Warsh was picked by U.S. President Donald Trump with the expectation that he would cut interest rates. If the central bank stands pat, it could throw its credibility into question, especially as Warsh has said he remains focused on taming price pressures, analysts say.
"We think market pricing for a rate hike may be overly confident," said Yung-Shin Kung, head and chief investment officer at Mast Investments.
A rate increase could be a weak tool to address the primary factors driving inflation, such as tariffs and the AI infrastructure buildout, he added.
At 9:38 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 99.26 points, or 0.19%, to 51,993.85, the S&P 500 gained 13.50 points, or 0.19%, to 7,599.84 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 111.71 points, or 0.43%, to 26,093.28.
"The market is incredibly resilient. It has every reason to fall in a meaningful way, and yet it isn't," said Adam Sarhan, director at marketterminal.com.
OIL RETREAT OFFERS RELIEF
Oil prices dipped after reports that Saudi Arabia was offering additional crude cargoes via Oman eased concerns about the scale of Middle East supply disruptions.
Brent crude futures were down 1.1% at $107.55 and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 1.9% to $103.82.
The S&P 500 energy index was the worst-performing sector index, down 2.1%, with Devon Energy and ConocoPhillips lower by more than 3% each.
The rate-sensitive utilities and real estate indexes <.SPLRCR > led gains, rising 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively.
Meta was up 1.1% and Microsoft fell marginally.
A joint call by top AI executives to slow down the development of the technology has clouded the outlook for the tech sector, although there is little clarity as yet on what such a slowdown would look like.
Meanwhile, Intel jumped 5.6% after a report said South Korea's SK Hynix was in talks with the company about memory chip manufacturing in the U.S. for the first time. U.S.-listed shares of SK Hynix were up 2.5%.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.44-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.33-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted four new 52-week highs and five new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 20 new highs and 69 new lows.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant and Tharuniyaa Lakshmi in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das and Maju Samuel)
