U.S. stocks down, earnings up ahead of key Federal Reserve meeting

NEW YORK, July 25 (UPI) -- U.S. stocks posted modest losses Monday ahead of the start of a two-day meeting by the Federal Reserve, where policy leaders could decide to raise key interest rates for the first time this year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 78 points to close Monday at 18,493.06. The S&P 500 dropped 6 points to finish at 2,168.48 and the Nasdaq fell 2 points to 5,097.63.

Oil prices also fell Monday, with Chevron and Exxon Mobil among the biggest losers in the Dow. Chevron fell $2.59 per share to $103.07 and Exxon declined $1.81 per share to $92.20. U.S. oil prices lost 2.4 percent to $43.13 a barrel.

However, nearly 70 percent of companies that submitted earnings reports on Monday beat analysts' forecasts -- giving the markets some momentum heading into the Fed's meeting Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the U.S. central bank will release its post-meeting statement, outlining which actions, if any, it will take on interest rates.

Most experts don't expect the Federal Reserve to raise rates -- particularly after the minutes of its previous meeting last month indicated greater hesitation to do so in light of Britain's vote to leave the European Union and concerns that U.S. inflation is still under target.

"I would like to see them move sooner, rather than later, but they continue to be very dovish," Deutsche Bank strategist Binky Chadha told CNBC. "Our house view on the Fed is they do nothing this week and signal very little this week."

Chadha, though, said the current and recent positive indicators could very well contribute to the Fed raising rates sometime later this year. The Federal Open Market Committee has not raised the federal funds rate since December.