US STOCKS-Wall St ticks higher, led by energy; Apple drags

By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK, Sept 16 (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 (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) 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 (1800 GMT), and a news conference will follow.

The Dow Jones industrial average was rising 37.93 points, or 0.22 percent, to 17,069.07, the S&P 500 was gaining 6.65 points, or 0.34 percent, to 1,990.78 and the Nasdaq Composite 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 (NYSE: WPG - news) 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 (NasdaqGS: YHOO - news) , 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)