The Dow gained .2%, the S&P .3% and the Nasdaq .6%.
All three had jumped more than 1% shortly after the opening bell, but closed well off their session highs as jitters persisted about coming interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve to tame stubbornly high inflation.
Shana Orczyk Sissel, founder, president and CEO of Banríon Capital Management, says the Fed will ramp up the pace of its interest-rate rises in March with a half-point hike.
"Because the Federal Reserve relies so heavily on indicators that are actually lagging to help them make decisions, they tend to react to old news and hence overshoot. [FLASH] They will raise rates 50 basis points in the next meeting and I think that we are not going to see any rate cuts in the next 12 months at all."
Economists at UK-based banks Barclays and NatWest also believe the Fed will raise rates by a half-point in March.
Among notable movers on Monday... Tesla shares rose nearly five-and-a-half percent after the electric automaker said its plant near Berlin was producing 4,000 cars a week - three weeks ahead of schedule according to a recent production plan reviewed by Reuters.
Shares of biotech firm Seagen surged after the Wall Street Journal reported that Pfizer was in early talks to acquire the company. Pfizer's shares dipped.
And U.S. railroad operator Union Pacific climbed as Chief Executive Lance Fritz said he would step down. Hedge fund Soroban Capital Partners had called for his ouster.
