Wall Street A Deer In Headlights Ahead Of Possible June Rate Hike

(RTTNews) - U.S. stocks barely budged Monday amid trepidation about the a possible June interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve.

The S&P 500 lost 4 points, or 0.2%, to close at 2,048 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7 points to finish at 17,494. There was little movement over the course of the day.

The Nasdaq eased 4 points to close at 4,765.

The Fed is moving closer to "slow normalization" of interest rates, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said in Beijing Monday.

"By nearly any metric, U.S. labor markets are at or beyond full employment," Bullard said. "This may put upward pressure on inflation going forward."

San Francisco Fed President John Williams said there could be two or three rate hikes this year.

Among big movers, Monsanto shares jumped 4.4 percent.

German conglomerate Bayer AG has made an all-cash offer to acquire U.S. competitor Monsanto for $122 per share or an aggregate value of $62 billion.

CF Industries and OCI called off their planned $8 billion fertilizer merger, citing problems with U.S. tax rules. CF shares were up 4.4 percent.

Cigna shares were lower amid a Wall Street Journal report of private bickering with Anthem as they seek merger approval.