Slight Gains on Wall Street Stocks edged higher on Monday, helped by gains in McDonald's and a move up in technology shares. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose about a point by the close of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average added 0.1 percent and the Nasdaq composite index gained 0.3 percent. Persistent worries about the negotiations over the "fiscal cliff," a series of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that could hurt economic growth next year, have kept market moves small of late. The benchmark S.&P. 500 index has yet to see a move greater than 0.5 percent in either direction for December, and hasn't moved more than 1 percent either way since Nov. 23. However, the market has regained most of the losses incurred postelection as investors refocused on the fiscal cliff. President Obama met with Republican House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday to negotiate a budget deal. A Boehner aide said Monday that talks were continuing. "There is a general sense that if a deal is struck, we could have a further advance in the market at the end of this year as well as the first part of next year," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial in Westport, Conn. Technology stocks were the S.&P. 500's best-performing sector as Hewlett-Packard climbed 2.9 percent on rumors that the activist investor Carl Icahn was building a stake in the computer maker. The stock is down 44.5 percent for the year and ranks as the Dow's worst performer. Technology was also supported by Cisco Systems, which gained 2.4 percent after the company presented its midterm growth strategy on Friday. Monday's rally put the stock on track for its fifth advance in the past six sessions. McDonald's gained 1.4 percent as its November sales were stronger than expected and showed a bounce back from a decline in October. Developments in Europe also kept sentiment in check after the Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, announced over the weekend that he would resign once the 2013 budget is approved. The move added to uncertainty about handling the euro zone debt crisis and drove Italy's borrowing costs higher. European markets were mixed on the developments. The main Italian stock index ended down 2.2 percent, while the DAX in Germany closed up 0.2 percent. Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York, said he expected choppy trading as investors turn their attention to the Federal Reserve's policy-setting meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Fed was expected to announce a new round of Treasury securities purchases at the end of the meeting, according to a Reuters poll of analysts. The bond buying would replace the existing "Operation Twist" stimulus, which expires at the end of December.