By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended down slightly on Monday with investors preparing for this week's consumer and producer price data, which they hope will provide a better idea of whether the Federal Reserve can begin cutting interest rates in the coming months.
Boeing (NYSE:BA) shares eased 3%. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Monday he expects the planemaker to cooperate in investigations by the Justice Department and National Transportation Safety Board into the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 mid-air emergency on Jan. 5.
The industrial sector also was lower, while the Dow edged higher.
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 46.97 points, or 0.12%, to 38,769.66, the S&P 500 lost 5.75 points, or 0.11%, to 5,117.94 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 65.84 points, or 0.41%, to 16,019.27.
Chip stocks extended recent declines, with Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) ending down 2%, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) falling 4.3% and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) declining 1.2%.
Shares of Equitrans Midstream (NYSE:ETRN) edged up 1.5% after EQT Corp (NYSE:EQT) said on Monday it had decided to buy back its former unit in an all-stock deal. EQT (ST:EQTAB) shares slid 7.8%.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.90 billion shares, compared with the 12.06 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.07-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.45-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 53 new highs and 74 new lows.