US open: Stocks mixed as investors look ahead to CPI reading

dl wall street st new york city nyc nyse stock exchange ny dow jones nasdaq sp finance us usa united states of america — Wall StreetSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street trading got off to a mixed start on Tuesday as market participants continued to wait for the release of March's all-important inflation data tomorrow.

As of 1530 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.10% at 38,855.82, while the S&P 500 lost 0.04% to 5,200.47 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.16% higher at 16,279.58.

The Dow opened 36.98 points lower on Tuesday, extending losses recorded in the previous session.

Markets have seemingly entered somewhat of a holding pattern this week, with investors holding out for tomorrow's consumer price index before making any major moves. In addition to tomorrow's CPI release, the Federal Reserve will also publish minutes from its March meeting.

Also of note, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note eased off slightly at the open, dropping to 4.398%, while West Texas Intermediate was 0.28% higher at $86.67 a barrel and spot gold prices were up around 0.89% at $2,359.90 per ounce after briefly hitting a fresh record of $2,372.50 on Monday.

Scope Markets' Joshua Mahony said: "Looking ahead, traders will likely see today as the clam before the storm, with central banks, earnings, and inflation set to drive volatility higher over the final three days of the week. The expectation of a rebound in US inflation does raise the likeliness of a risk-off move that could benefit the dollar but come to the detriment of equity markets. While markets now price the June monetary policy decision as a coin-toss for the Fed, the likely rise in US CPI should provide a reminder of likely patient approach being taken by Jerome Powell & co."

On the macro front, the National Federation of Independent Business' small business optimism index fell for a third consecutive month in March, dropping to 88.5 - the lowest reading since December 2012 and well below forecasts for a print of 90.2. Inflation was given as the single most important problem in operating businesses for 25% of those surveyed, higher input and labor costs and up two points from February. Additionally, the net percent of owners who expect real sales to be higher decreased eight points from February to a net -18%.

"Business owners continue to manage numerous economic headwinds. Inflation has once again been reported as the top business problem on Main Street and the labor market has only eased slightly", said NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg.

In the corporate space,Google parent company Alphabet hit a fresh 52-week high on the back of its new custom Arm-based chip, while e-commerce giant Amazon was on track to beat its previous record close from back in 2021.