Wall St slips as holiday-thinned week begins

investing.com:

By Shashwat Chauhan and Bansari Mayur Kamdar

(Reuters) -Wall Street's main indexes eased at the start of the holiday-shortened week on Monday as investors looked forward to key inflation data later this week, while advancing chip stocks kept losses on the tech-heavy Nasdaq in check.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 0.5%, with Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) jumping 9.0% to a record high, while industry heavyweight Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) climbed 1.6%.

Over the weekend, a report stated that China had introduced guidelines to phase out U.S. microprocessors supplied by Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) from government personal computers and servers. Intel was down 1.2% while AMD, reversing earlier losses, was last up 1.4%.

Both the S&P 500 and the Dow logged their best weekly percentage gains so far this year on Friday, with the Fed sticking to its guidance of three interest-rate cuts this year.

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee backed that claim and said he had penciled in three rate cuts for this year, while Fed Governor Lisa Cook said the central bank needs to proceed with caution as it decides when to start cutting interest rates.

Traders now see a nearly 71% chance of the Fed bringing in the first cut in June, according to the CME FedWatch tool, up from around 55% at the start of last week.

The crucial February reading of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, is due on Friday, when U.S. markets will be shut for the Good Friday holiday.

A hot reading for the PCE index could dent market optimism around early rate cuts.

Final estimates for fourth-quarter GDP and a March consumer confidence reading are also due in the next few days and will round off