Wall Street ends in a small increase, while waiting the results

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S stocks finished marginally higher Monday after a meeting mainly characterized by a form of attention, investors are preparing for both of the quarterly results and the decision on rates European Central Bank on Thursday.

The Dow Jones industrials gained 30 0.19% or 23.31 points at 12,400.03. In contrast, the S & P-500, wider took 0.46 points, or 0.03%, to 1332.87. The Nasdaq Composite fell on his side in 0.41 point (-0.01%) to 2789.19.

The S & P 500, which recorded one of its best weekly performance last week in favor of good employment figures for the month in March to the United States, has stumbled on the ceiling of 1,333 points, a level that it has not reached close since mid-February.

This is however twice the lowest in 12 years hit in March 2009 and is no longer very far from the 1344 peak of 2011, its highest since June 2008.

According to Bruce Zaro, technical analyst at Delta Global Asset Management, the quarterly earnings season, which begins next week, could push the S & P 500 beyond the 1,400 mark by mid-May.

Concerned by the trend in inflation, the European Central Bank (ECB) will raise its rates next week, and twice reoffend by the end of the year, according to a Reuters poll published last week.

Following the strong employment figures released Friday , Some people think that the Federal Reserve will take less time than expected to follow the lead of the ECB.

Due to the absence of major economic indicators but also because to the continuing nuclear crisis in Japan and political violence in North Africa and the Middle East, volumes remain very low on Wall Street.

Those of last week were the lowest weekly volume since the beginning of the year.

Pfizer closed up 0.79% to 20.54 dollars after announcing the sale of its subsidiary Capsugel world's leading manufacturer to hard gelatin capsules, the American Fund KKR private equity (+1.41%) to nearly $ 2.38 billion.

In the technology sector, another investment fund Apax Partners announced the acquisition of Epicor Software Group as well as unlisted Activant Solution for a total to some two billion dollars to create an entity better able to compete with Oracle and SAP in the market for enterprise software.

The title Epicor jumped 11.74% to 12.56 dollars.

After the close, Texas Instruments has announced the acquisition of National Semiconductor for $ 6.5 billion in cash.