Months of anticipation will come to an end this week when the Federal Reserve finally says whether it will start to rein in a massive stimulus of the US economy.
The programme has flooded financial markets with $US2.75 trillion over the past five years.
Despite the big announcement, US stocks closed higher on Friday, lifted by Intel whose shares gained 3.6% after a rating boost.
The Dow Jones Index last week had its biggest weekly gain since January, rising 75 points, or 0.5%, to 15,376.
The S&P 500 Index, was up more than 0.25% at 1,688. The Nasdaq Composite was up 6 points at 3,722.
The FTSE 100 index in London was down 0.08%, the DAX in Frankfurt was up 0.18% and the CAC-40 was up 0.19%.
The Australian 200 Index fell 22 points on Friday to close at 5,220. The NZX 50 gained 9 points to 4,650.
The New Zealand dollar was trading at 81.31 US cents on Monday morning, 87.92 Australian, 51.21 pence, and against the yen at 80.79 yen and 0.6116 euro.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US115.25 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1326. 99 per ounce.
