NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Blue chip stocks inched higher Monday morning on bets that the Federal Reserve is about to take a pause in its more than two-year old interest-rate hiking campaign.

However, gains were undermined by concerns about what such a pause implies about the health of the U.S. economy, particularly if inflation is still on the rise.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 23.69 to 11,243.07, Charts) and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 (up 3.37 to 1,279.14, Charts) index both added more than 0.2 percent in the early going.

The tech-fueled Nasdaq composite (up 5.96 to 2,078.46, Charts) was barely higher.

Stocks slipped Monday after rising oil prices sparked worries about higher inflation, ahead of Tuesday's Fed meeting.

The central bank is meeting Tuesday and is widely expected to keep the fed funds rate, a short-term overnight bank lending rate, at 5.25 percent after raising it 17 times in a row. A decision is expected at around 2:15 p.m. ET.

As always, investors will be attuned to the accompanying statement for clues about how the Fed sees the economy, as well as the future of interest rate policy.

U.S. light crude oil for September delivery fell 31 cents to $76.67 a barrel in electronic trading.

Oil prices surged roughly 3 percent Monday after BP began shutting down the biggest oilfield in the United States due to a corroded pipeline.

Investors also eyed the preliminary read on second-quarter productivity. Productivity grew at a 1.1 percent annualized rate, after growing at an upwardly revised 4.3 percent rate in the first quarter. Expectations were for a growth rate of 0.9 percent, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

Treasury prices fell, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.93 percent from 4.91 percent late Monday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar was little changed versus the euro and the yen.

COMEX gold for December delivery fell $4.70 to $654.80 an ounce.

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