Stocks Hold Steady Ahead of Big Inflation Update

Stock indexes drifted to a mixed close Monday as Wall Street prepared for a report on inflation that could show how realistic its hopes for easier interest rates are.

• The S&P 500 fell 5.75 points, or 0.1%, to 5,117.94, , coming off just its third losing week in the last 19. It's still near the all-time high it set on Thursday.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 46.97 points, or 0.1%, to 38,769.66.
• The Nasdaq composite fell 65.84 points, or 0.4%, to 16,019.27.

If economists are correct, Tuesday's report on prices at the consumer level could show inflation remained at 3.1% in February.

A month ago, a hotter-than-expected report on inflation at the consumer level sent financial markets spinning after scrambling bets for when the Federal Reserve will start cutting rates. Stocks have already run higher and Treasury yields have already eased in the bond market on expectations that such cuts are coming. But the trend for inflation has been mostly downward, cooling toward the Fed's 2% target from its peak above 9%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell Jerome Powell said last week the Fed is "not far" from getting enough confidence about inflation to begin cutting rates. Cuts to the Fed's main interest rate from its highest level since 2001 would relax pressure on the economy and financial system, while goosing investment prices.

Expectations for easier interest rates have helped the price of gold rally to a record. Bitcoin, which proponents sometimes pitch as "digital gold," also rallied to another record, the AP reports. It rose above $72,000 after sitting below $17,000 at the start of last year. A slew of new exchange-traded funds that make investing in bitcoin easier has also helped to drive interest in the cryptocurrency.

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Oracle rose 1.5% before it released its latest earnings report after trading finished for the day. Its profit topped analysts' expectations, and its stock rose more in afterhours trading. On the losing side of Wall Street was natural-gas producer EQT, which fell 7.8% for the biggest drop in the S&P 500. It said it will buy Equitrans Midstream and its gas transmission and storage systems in an all-stock deal that values the combined company at $35 billion. Equitrans Midstream rose 2.2%. (More stock market stories.)