NEW YORK, July 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks wavered and traded in a narrow range on Monday, as investors geared up for another week of earnings.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 53.39 points, or 0.25 percent, to 21,526.68. The S&P 500 lost 3.13 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,469.41. The Nasdaq Composite Index ticked up 4.05 points, or 0.06 percent, to 6,391.80.
Many tech giants are scheduled to report later this week, including Facebook, Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet.
This earnings season has been strong so far and pushed the major indices notched record highs recently.
The latest data from Thomson Reuters showed that the S&P 500 companies' blended earnings in the second quarter of 2017 are expected to rise 8.8 percent year on year, while the revenues are forecast to increase 4.6 percent.
On the economic front, the seasonally adjusted Markit Flash U.S. Manufacturing PMI for July increased to 54.2, hitting a 6-month high, from 53.9 in June.
Meanwhile, Wall Street also awaited a two-day Federal Reserve meeting that is going to kick off on Tuesday.
Traders have widely expected that the central bank will leave interest rate unchanged this time. Market expectations for a rate hike were just 3.1 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
U.S. stocks ended mixed for the last week amid earnings reports, with the S&P and the Nasdaq eking out gains and the Dow mildly falling. Enditem
