NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - This week's Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates and a quarterly profit report from Cisco Systems may be unable to shake the U.S. stock market from its fast-deepening slump.

More losses came Friday when weak April job market data frustrated investors betting on a quicker economic recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average once again struggled to hold 10,000, returning to levels first seen more than three years ago. Things are worse for the Nasdaq composite index, which is back at levels initially crossed in the summer of 1997.

Bernie Schaeffer, of Schaeffer's Investment Research, likens the market's inaction to the movie "Groundhog Day," where Bill Murray relives the same day over and over again. This time the ending may not be pretty, he said.

"My bet is that the resolution will be to the downside," said Schaeffer, who argues that investors are too optimistic and the worst news about the economy and profits may not have passed.

He favors gold stocks, seeing further upside to the precious metal amid the possibility of rising inflation, a deteriorating economy and international instability. Goldprices already trade near two-year highs.

The Nasdaq slipped 51 points last week, widening its losses for the year, while the Dow industrials added about 96 points over the last five sessions.

With the economy's recovery fragile, the Federal Reserve Tuesday is expected to keep its benchmark short-term lending rate at a 40-year low of 1.75 percent. Fed policy makers have held rates steady at every meeting this year following 11 rate cuts in 2001.

But cheaper money has not translated into sustained economic growth. The nation's unemployment rate rose to a seven-and-a-half year high of 6 percent in April, the government said Friday. Job growth came in weaker than expected following eight monthly payroll declines.

"This report all but rules out a move next Tuesday," said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services, referring to expectations for no Fed action. "Six percent unemployment is far higher than they want to see so I'm beginning to think they may not move even in August."

Cisco Systems' numbers come after the close Tuesday. Analysts polled by earnings tracker First Call expect Cisco (CSCO: Research, Estimates) to log a profit, excluding one-time items, of 9 cents per share for its fiscal third quarter. That's up from the 3-cents-per-share profit a year ago and identical to the previous quarters numbers.

Shares of Cisco, the top supplier of hardware that links computer networks and powers the Internet, are down nearly 50 percent from their 52-week high, hurt as businesses cut spending on communications gear.

Insurer MetLife (MET: Research, Estimates) is expected to post quarterly profits that rose to 58 cents a share from 49 cents a year ago. The report is due Tuesday. Also that day, trash hauler Waste Management's (WMI: Research, Estimates) profits are seen coming in at 26 cents a share, from 24 cents a year ago.

The dollar should also gain focus in the days ahead following a week when the U.S. currency slumped to six-month low against the euro and a two-month trough versus the yen

Wholesale inflation data comes Thursday. The Producer Price index is expected to rise 0.5 percent, according to the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by Briefing.com, a slower pace than March's 1 percent gains. An early look at May consumer confidence arrives Friday when the University of Michigan releases its sentiment survey.

Corporate profits in the March quarter registered their fifth straight decline. Investors have noticed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index of large companies is near where it was in October, not far above a three year low.

Following a projected 6.9 percent gain in the current quarter, profits are forecast to rise 27.1 percent in the third quarter followed by a whopping 40.3 jump during the last three months of the year. But few expect these numbers to hold up as companies reveal more details about business conditions.

"I'm concerned that (the recovery) will be much slower than it needs to be for the market to progress," Maureen Allyn, an independent economist, told CNNfn's The Money Gang.