Stocks Fall Ahead of Fed Meeting

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks were pulling back in early trading Monday following four weeks of gains as investors work through another batch of corporate earnings and look ahead to this week's Federal Reserve policy meeting. Yahoo fell after Verizon Communications announced it would buy most of Yahoo's internet businesses for $4.83 billion.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 49 points, or 0.3 percent, to 18,523 as of 10:05 a.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell five points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,170 and the Nasdaq composite fell three points, or 0.1 percent, to 5,096.

YAHOO'S DEMISE: Yahoo fell 71 cents, or 2 percent, to $38.66 after the company announced that Verizon would buy Yahoo's advertising, media and email businesses for $4.83 billion, ending a five-month auction. Verizon will add Yahoo to its portfolio of recently purchased media companies, including AOL.

Once finished, Yahoo will be a shell of its former self, existing mainly as a holding company for its Alibaba and Yahoo Japan investments, as well as its patent portfolio.

ACCELERATING: Sprint jumped 79 cents, or 17 percent, to $5.42 after the company reported a wider-than-expected loss but added a larger number of subscribers than expected. Japan's Softbank purchased a controlling stake in Sprint nearly three years ago.

CENTRAL BANKS: The Bank of Japan and Federal Reserve hold policy meetings this week. With Japan's economy barely growing, economists are speculating about whether its central bank may push more stimulus. The U.S. economy is in better shape than other advanced economies, but expectations are that the Fed will hold interest rates steady and look to raise interest rates later this year.

GLOBAL MEETING: Over the weekend, envoys of the Group of 20 major economies, meeting in China, promised to protect the world economy from the shockwaves of Britain's decision to leave the EU and to boost sluggish growth, while rejecting trade protectionism. While the statement was short of concrete promises, the tone seemed to have reassured some investors at a time of heightened uncertainty.

ENERGY: The price of U.S. crude fell 90 cents to $43.29 a barrel. Brent crude, the global benchmark, slipped 71 cents to $44.99 a barrel in London.

BONDS, CURRENCIES: U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.55 percent from 1.57 percent. The dollar fell to 106 yen from 106.17 yen. The euro rose to $1.0978 from $1.0961.

(KA)