Wall Street edges up as Fed looms; Apple hits new high

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow and S&P 500 inched up on Monday as investors showed caution ahead of a conference of central bankers later this week while Apple helped lift the Nasdaq after hitting a new high in the wake of a court victory.

Investors are looking ahead to the meeting of central bankers at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday for clarity on what the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank will do to support an economy showing signs of slowing growth.

Equities have rallied on growing expectations for a third round of quantitative easing from the Fed, as well as possible action from the European Central Bank, and the news from Jackson Hole could determine whether the recent rally that took the S&P index to four-year highs will persist. Still, questions remain about the timing and size of any possible action.

The S&P 500 has been unable to sustain a break above the April high of 1,422.38 which is seen as a key resistance point while finding support at the 1,400 level.

"The critical period is really from Friday to the twelfth (of September) - the constitutional court decision," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont.

"(Bernanke) may not show his hand at Jackson Hole - he may wait until the twelfth to show his hand because he may want to wait until after the ECB meeting."

The constitutional court in Germany is expected to rule on the legality of the euro zone bailout fund on September 12.

Daily trading volume is expected to be extremely light ahead of the meeting, and as many market participants are out on vacation ahead of the Labor Day holiday on September 3. Last week, volume was among the lowest of the year.

Apple Inc was up 2 percent to $676.76 after the iPad maker won a sweeping victory in a patent lawsuit against Samsung Electronics . Samsung said it would contest the verdict, which orders it to pay $1.05 billion in damages. Earlier, the company hit an all-time high of $680.87.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 8.76 points, or 0.07 percent, to 13,166.73. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> gained 3.82 points, or 0.27 percent, to 1,414.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> gained 11.69 points, or 0.38 percent, to 3,081.48.

In merger news, car rental firm Hertz Global Holdings said it would buy smaller rival Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group for about $2.3 billion ending years of an on-off takeover battle.

Shares of Hertz climbed 11.9 percent to $14.71 while Dollar Thrifty gained 7.4 percent to $86.96.

Hudson City Bancorp Inc jumped 15.4 percent to $7.43 as the most actively traded stock on the Nasdaq after the company agreed to be acquired by M&T Bank Corp for $3.7 billion in cash and stock. M&T shares advanced 4.4 percent to $89.68.

IBM Corp agreed to buy Kenexa Corp for $1.3 billion, sending Kenexa shares up 41 percent to $45.75. IBM, a Dow component, was off 0.4 percent to $196.94 and Kenexa surged 41.4 percent to $45.81.

Tiffany & Co climbed 6.9 percent to $62.51 after cutting it full-year profit and sales outlook, though by less than had been feared.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-index-futures-point-mixed-start-075240019--finance.html

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