Canadian markets, fueled by a competing bid for Stelco Inc., finished ahead on the day, while U.S. markets were mostly unchanged in listless trading as they waited for the U.S. Federal Reserve’s next move on interest rates .

At close, the S&P/TSX was up 19.43 points or 0.22% to 8845.16, after dipping to 8798 at midday, while the TSX Venture exchange advanced 3.78 points or 0.23%. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average slipped 4.94 points or 0.05% to 10386.37. The Nasdaq gained 4.08 points or 0.2% to 2043.33, while the S&P 500 lost 0.81 of appoint to 1164.08.

The Canadian dollar lost 0.33 of a cent to US83.42¢.

In Toronto, shares of Stelco jumped more than 20% to after OAO Severtstal, a Russian steel company, on Tuesday put forward an offer to buy the Hamilton steelmaker currently restructuring under creditor protection. It’s believed there are several competing offers for the steelmaker, including an expected $200-million equity rights offering backed by Germany’s Deutsche Bank, a major Stelco bondholder. Stelco’s board met Tuesday to examine those and other potential bids. More than 16.3 million shares of Stelco traded hands, with the stock closing up 25¢ to $1.47.

The TSX also got a boost from technology stocks, which gained 1.25%, and from mi ning stocks, up 1.27%. Energy shares advanced 0.25% even though crude fell to a seven-week low. December crude closed down $1.72 at $47.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after falling as low as $47.21 – its lowest level since Sept. 21.

Financial stocks on the TSX lost 0.23%.

In New York, stocks barely budged while investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates and while they digested troubling developments at insurance broker Marsh & McLennan Cos. and drugmaker Merck & Co.

While the Fed’s policy committee is expected to boost interest rates again at Wednesday’s meeting as another pre-emptive strike against inflation, questions remain over what signals the central bank might issue on the overall economy in its policy statement.

Marsh & McLennan was down 56¢ at US$26.80 after the company posted disappointing quarterly results and said it would cut 3,000 jobs, or about 5 percent of its work force, amid the continuing fallout over charges of insurance bid-rigging by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Merck was down 57¢ at US$26 as the Dow’s biggest decliner after disclosing late Monday that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department were examining the company’s handling of Vioxx. Merck recently pulled the leading arthritis drug off the market after studies showed it increased the risk of heart attacks.