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Survey: US business activity steady in September

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Intel ( INTC ) gains on report of Apollo's investment offer

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GM slips after Bernstein downgrades stock

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Indexes up: Dow 0.01%, S&P 500 0.19%, Nasdaq 0.27%

(Updated at 9:53 a.m. ET/1353 GMT)

By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal

Sept 23 (Reuters) -

Wall Street's main indexes inched higher in choppy trading

on Monday as investors focused on comments from Federal Reserve

policymakers and factory activity data, following the central

bank's decision to commence monetary policy easing.

The Fed's pivotal move on monetary policy in the previous

week propped up the main indexes for monthly gains, bucking a

historical trend where September has been a weak month for

equities on average.

Having rallied for much of the year, the S&P 500 is a

whisker away from an all-time high and the blue-chip Dow

hit another intraday record high.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 8.63

points, or 0.01%, to 42,068.84, the S&P 500 gained 11.07

points, or 0.19%, to 5,713.62 and the Nasdaq Composite

gained 46.64 points, or 0.27%, to 17,995.97.

Eight out of the 11 S&P 500 sectors traded higher, with

energy stocks leading gains with a 1.4% rise, while

healthcare stocks declined 0.3%.

Among rate-sensitive growth stocks, Tesla

jumped 3.6%, Meta rose 1.2%, while Apple ( AAPL ) lost

0.5%.

The Russell 2000 index, tracking small caps, gained

0.2%.

Comments from a number of policymakers were the main focus

on the day as investors scoured for clues on why the central

bank kicked off its easing cycle with an outsized 50 basis

points cut.

Atlanta Fed President and voting member Raphael Bostic

said inflation and unemployment were nearing normal rates,

suggesting an openness

to a quick pace of upcoming cuts, while a

report showed

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari was eying around a

further 50 bps reduction in rates by year-end.

Trader bets, as per the CME Group's FedWatch tool, initially

favored a larger Fed move at its upcoming November meeting,

after Governor Christopher Waller on Friday flagged that

upcoming inflation data could undershoot the Fed's 2% target.

However, the bets now appear to be a coin toss, with markets

expecting a total of 74.3 bps reduction by year-end as per LSEG

data.

"The market is anticipating a lot more than the Fed is going

to provide and for that reason, the market's going to be

volatile," said Phil Blancato, chief executive officer of

Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management.

"It's a little bit of a pause considering the exuberance of

last week. There's nothing economic right now that's spooking

the market other than the Fed going a little further than anyone

expected."

On the data front, a preliminary survey showed September

manufacturing and services activity stood at 47 and 55.4

respectively, compared with estimates of 48.5 and 55.2.

But the spotlight will be on Friday's personal consumption

expenditure figure for the month of August - the Fed's preferred

inflation gauge.

Among top movers, Intel ( INTC ) rose 2.3% after a report

showed Apollo offered to make an investment of as much

as $5 billion in the chipmaker.

General Motors ( GM ) slipped 3.2% after Bernstein

downgraded the carmaker's stock to "market perform" from

"outperform".

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.86-to-1 ratio

on the NYSE and by a 1.01-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 43 new 52-week highs and one new low,

while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 50 new highs and 43 new

lows.