U.S. stock exchanges were in a subdued mood on Friday - investors preferred to refrain from risk ahead of this week's expected meeting of the Federal Reserve. Cautiousness was promoted by the report on inflation in the U.S. last week, which showed that consumer prices in February exceeded forecasts.

Friday trading ended with the fall of three major U.S. indices - Dow Jones lost 0.49%, S&P 500 - 0.65%, Nasdaq - 0.96%. The European ones also mostly declined - German DAX by 0.08%, British FTSE 100 - by 0.20%, French CAC 40 showed a symbolic growth of 0.04%.

The start of the Fed's two-day meeting is scheduled for Tuesday. Players' attention this week is focused on its results, expected on Wednesday. The pace of inflation growth has tempered optimism about the imminent move to lower the key rate, notes Investing.com - in the opinion of most market participants, it will be left unchanged.