Stocks ended mixed for the second day in a row yesterday as Wall Street held its breath while the Federal Reserve meets to consider an interest-rate cut and Merrill Lynch walloped Wall Street with a profit warning.

Technology stocks made small gains as investors looked beyond the recent rash of companies warning the weak US economy is hurting their earnings. But the broader market finished in negative territory, where it had spent much of the morning after Merrill - the No. 1 US brokerage - said the stock market slump will hurt its results.

Investors turned their focus to the Fed, which began its two-day meeting on interest rates yesterday. Wall Street is betting the central bank will engineer at least a quarter-percentage point cut, but some investors are hoping for a heftier half-point reduction when the meeting ends this afternoon.