US stocks were mixed in early trading on Tuesday, with techs serving as a bright spot while Wall Street kicked off a holiday-shortened week by focusing on a coming inflation report watched closely by the Federal Reserve.
The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) hugged the flatline, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) added roughly 0.5% after solid closing gains on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), which lists fewer tech names, slipped about 0.3%.
The major gauges are regrouping after a volatile week as traders return from the Memorial Day break. Stocks have been buffeted back and forth by two impulses: fading optimism for rate cuts on one hand, and high hopes for AI on the other. The latter is led by Nvidia (NVDA), whose shares continued a post-earnings tear, gaining 3% in premarket trading.
Investors are now firmly back on inflation watch, counting down to the release of the Federal Reserve’s preferred PCE gauge on Friday. Fed officials have sent out a drumbeat of warnings that data must show real cooling in inflation to trigger a policy shift, with Neel Kashkari the latest to join them.
Those comments, alongside hotter-than-expected economic prints and hawkish Fed minutes, have prompted traders to once again scale back bets on interest rate cuts this year. Data chasers will get updates on first quarter GDP and consumer confidence later this week that could prove catalysts.
In other individual movers, GameStop (GME) stocks soared as much as 22% on Tuesday. The games retailer on Friday said it had brought in not far off $1 billion from a share sale during the meme rally earlier in May. Meanwhile, Apple (AAPL) rose following data showing iPhone sales in China jumped over 50% in April as retail partners cut prices.