Market Overview * The U.S. stock market slipped back into meandering mode Monday, closing mixed despite a surge in markets in Asia and Europe. Traders blamed nervousness ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy-setting meeting today.

Tokyo stocks bucked the overseas trend, suffering a 3.6% drop on political worries.

* Treasury bond yields inched up, awaiting two note auctions this week. Gold prices also gained, and oil stabilized.

Stocks

Neither blue chips nor smaller stocks could sustain the attempt at a rally that began late last week.

The Dow industrials added just 3.64 points to 3,755.21, and most broader stock indexes were fractionally lower. Trading volume was moderate.

The Nasdaq composite index of mostly smaller stocks inched up 0.92 point to 760.15, but losers still edged winners on Nasdaq.

Analysts said some investors were reluctant to make moves ahead of today's Federal Reserve meeting. Though the Fed delays for months any public announcement of moves it makes, many analysts believe that the central bank will vote to adopt a policy "bias" in favor of higher interest rates--a reaction to the strengthening economy.

Any actual increase in short-term interest rates by the Fed, however, could be many months away, analysts note. And if the economy slows again in the meantime, the Fed could shift back to a neutral policy, leaving interest rates steady.

Clinton Administration officials, with an eye on the 1994 congressional elections, want any rate increase to come later rather than sooner, perhaps in spring.

"The Administration is saying, 'Don't tighten yet. Make sure this recovery is for real,' " said economist David Wyss of DRI-McGraw Hill, a forecasting firm based in Lexington, Mass.

Wall Streeters say the stock market can cope with slowly rising interest rates in 1994, as long as corporate profits also are rising with the expanding economy.

For now, however, many large investors are believed to have already closed the books on 1993. The market is expected to drift between now and Jan. 1.

In foreign markets, meanwhile, buyers--many of them American--continue to pour into stocks, extending this year's big gains.

In London, the FTSE-100 index leaped to a new record, up 27.8 points to 3,364.9. Frankfurt's DAX index surged 27.14 points to 2,178.16, and Paris' CAC-40 index gained 27.03 points to 2,223.47.