By Liz Moyer

Investing.com — U.S. stock prices fell after Monday’s opening as investors sought to forget April’s woes and instead focus on the Federal Reserve policy meeting this week.

At 9:50 am ET the market was flat. The market was also flat at that time and the index climbed 0.2%.

After losing nearly 5% in April, the Dow has had a rocky start to May. The Nasdaq was even worse, with tech stocks falling 13% in May.

Although the Fed meeting won’t take place until tomorrow, and the interest rate decision will be made on Wednesday, investors have already begun to plan for the future. The three main challenges facing equities are: China’s struggles to contain Covid-19 epidemics that have caused lockdowns and fuelled fears of economic slowdown; aggressive Fed policymakers combating inflation; and Russia’s continuing war against Ukraine.

In many locations it was Monday holiday, and markets were closed in Hong Kong China, Russia, Russia, and the U.K.

Apple Inc. shares fell 0.1% on the heels of European regulators accusing it of misusing its leading position in the mobile payment business. Spirit Airlines Inc shares fell 8% following its statement that it would not accept a JetBlue Airways Corp takeover offer (NASDAQ:), and instead pursued the prior takeover proposal. Frontier Group Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:). JetBlue shares were flat, Frontier dropped 5%

The price of oil also dropped. Oil prices fell by 3.7% to $100.80 per barrel. Crude oil’s price dropped 3.4% to $103.47 per barrel. The price of a barrel fell to $100.80 an ounce, or 2.9%.