Little movement for US stocks

Stocks barely budged today, ending narrowly mixed after yields on the 30-year Treasury note briefly hit 5% and investors grew skittish a day ahead of the Federal Reserve's first meeting of the year.

After a volatile week in which stocks lost ground, merger and acquisition news gave a boost to stocks for much of the session before the 30-year yield moved higher. Merrill Lynch & Co. agreed to acquire wealth manager First Republic Bank for $1.8bn (€1.4bn) in cash and stock and Citigroup Inc. struck an agreement to buy British insurer Prudential PLC's Egg Banking PLC online bank for about $1.13bn (€872,277).