Traders Await Major Inflation Update

Stocks meandered to a mixed close on Wall Street Tuesday as traders made their final moves before several potentially market-moving reports later in the week.

• The S&P 500 edged up by 7.52 points, or 0.1%, to 5,209.91.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 9.13 points, or less than 0.1%, to 38,883.67.
• The Nasdaq composite rose 52.68, or 0.3%, to 16,306.64.

Treasury yields eased in the bond market ahead of Wednesday's highly anticipated update on inflation at the US consumer level. This week will also bring other inflation data, and several big US companies including JPMorgan Chase and Delta Air Lines will deliver their profit reports for the first three months of the year.

On Wall Street, some of the biggest winners in the market's frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology gave back some of their monster gains to lead the market lower. Nvidia sank 2%, and because it's one of the biggest stocks on Wall Street, it was the single largest force pulling the S&P 500 down the AP reports. Super Micro Computer fell 2.6%, though its stock has still more than tripled so far this year. Tilray Brands tumbled 20.3% after the cannabis company reported weaker revenue growth for its latest quarter than analysts expected.

Norfolk Southern rose 1.3% even though the railroad reported preliminary earnings results for the first quarter that were shy of analysts' expectations. It also agreed to pay $600 million in a class-action lawsuit settlement related to a fiery train derailment last year in eastern Ohio.

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The question hanging over Wall Street is whether inflation will cool enough to convince the Federal Reserve to deliver the cuts to interest rates that traders are craving and have been betting on. Some doubts have crept in following a series of hotter-than-expected reports on the economy, and traders are now expecting just two or three cuts to rates this year. Some are even talking about the possibility of zero. That's down from expectations for six or seven cuts at the start of the year, according to data from CME Group. Strategists at Bank of America are looking for Wednesday's inflation update to show a cooldown after ignoring food and energy prices, which can zigzag sharply.

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