Wall Street ends lower ahead of US data; dollar pressured by yen, yuan

investing.com:

By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. stocks lost ground at the start of a holiday-shortened week on Monday as investors positioned themselves ahead of inflation data.

All three major U.S. stock indexes ended the session in the red, with the blue-chip Dow suffering the largest percentage loss.

The dollar dipped as the risk of yen intervention loomed and it came under pressure from China's government-supported yuan rally.

Wall Street focused on Boeing (NYSE:BA) after the planemaker said its CEO Dave Calhoun will step down by year-end after a flurry of safety concerns.

«On the heels of the best week of the year last week, stocks are taking a bit of a breather today, with the inflation data set to come out later this week,» said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group in Omaha.

«The truth is many people are on spring break this week,» Detrick added. «We have a holiday right around the corner, so a light-volume consolidation after the big run we've seen is perfectly normal.»

After the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision last Wednesday to leave its key policy rate unchanged, and its «dot plot» still reflecting expectations for three cuts to that rate this year, markets are looking ahead to Friday's Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report due from the Commerce Department.

The report will be released on the Good Friday holiday despite it being a market holiday.

Analysts expect the PCE data to show inflation gathered heat in February, with prices rising by 0.4% after January's 0.3% gain. However, «core» price inflation, which strips away volatile food and energy prices, is seen cooling to 0.3% from 0.4%.

Year-on-year, headline and core PCE price indexes are expected to land at 2.5% and 2.8%, respectively,