S&P 500, Nasdaq dip as investors brace for CPI, PPI data

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. stocks mostly edged lower on Monday with investors preparing for this week's consumer and producer price data, which they hope could give them a better idea on whether the Federal Reserve can begin cutting interest rates in the coming months.

Boeing shares were down 3.2% in afternoon trading. Alaska Airlines said on Saturday it was cooperating with the U.S. Department of Justice in a criminal investigation into a Boeing 737 MAX cabin panel blowout on one of its flights in January.

Boeing weighed on the S&P 500, with the industrial sector down 0.8%, while the Dow was flat.

U.S. consumer price data for February is due on Tuesday, with expectations for a monthly increase of 0.4% and 3.1% on an annual basis. The U.S. producer price report is due on Thursday.

"These tend to be more volatile ... and certainly the market will move with them," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. "There's certainly a camp out there saying we're going to have renewed inflation - or there's a good possibility of that - and then there's certainly a camp that says we're going to have deflation, and that will allow the Fed to lower rates. It's always tricky."

Data showing signs of a robust economy slowed the stock market's rally last month as traders pushed back expectations on the timing of the first Fed rate cut to June from March.

The Fed's next rate-setting meeting is next week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 12.47 points, or 0.03%, to 38,735.16, the S&P 500 lost 6.07 points, or 0.12%, to 5,117.62 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 33.84 points, or 0.21%, to 16,051.28.

Chip stocks extended recent declines. Nvidia was down 1.3%, while Advanced Micro Devices was down 4% and Broadcom slid 1.4%.

Shares of Equitrans Midstream added 1.6% after EQT Corp said on Monday it had decided to buy back its former unit in an all-stock deal. EQT shares slid 9.2%.

Some cryptocurrency and blockchain-related firms, such as Coinbase Global, climbed as bitcoin hit a fresh record high.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.16-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.31-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 19 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 50 new highs and 61 new lows.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch in New YorkAdditional reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Shashwat Chauhan in BengaluruEditing by Pooja Desai and Matthew Lewis)