Wall St. ticks higher, led by energy; Apple drags

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were rising on Tuesday, with energy stocks posting their best day in more than a month as crude prices bounced back.

A 1.7 percent decline in APPLE (AAPL.NQ)shares , however, kept the S&P's tech sector little changed and pressured the Nasdaq.

Traders eyed a two-day Federal Reserve policy meeting which began Tuesday for clues on the short-term direction of U.S. interest rates. The Fed will release a statement Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. EDT, and a news conference will follow.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was rising 37.93 points, or 0.22 percent, to 17,069.07, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was gaining 6.65 points, or 0.34 percent, to 1,990.78 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was adding 3.88 points, or 0.09 percent, to 4,522.78.

The largest percentage gainer on the New York Stock Exchange was Glimcher Realty , rising 29.53 percent after Washington Prime announced the purchase of Glimcher for $4.3 billion. The largest percentage decliner was Atlantic Power , down 33.60 percent after it said it would replace its CEO and slash its dividend.

Among the most active stocks on the NYSE were Glimcher, Bank of America , unchanged at $16.74, and Petrobras , up 7.92 percent to $17.85.

On the Nasdaq, Apple Inc , down 1.9 percent to $99.70; Yahoo , down 0.2 percent to $42.48; and Facebook , up 0.5 percent to $74.98, were among the most actively traded.

Advancing issues were outnumbering declining ones on the NYSE by 1,509 to 1,407, for a 1.07-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,511 issues were falling and 1,065 advancing for a 1.42-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The broad S&P 500 index was posting 5 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 12 new highs and 74 new lows.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)

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