Indexes dip as investors focus on inflation

A slide in banks and industrial companies nudged stocks on Wall Street to modest losses Wednesday after an early gain faded in the last half-hour of trading. Stocks championed by hordes of online retail investors, the “meme” stocks as they have become known, were volatile once again.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.2 percent, erasing its meager gain from a day earlier. The benchmark index’s modest moves this week have it on track for its first weekly loss in three weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up 0.4 percent, while the Nasdaq held up somewhat better, ending down just 0.1 percent.

Treasury yields slipped. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.49 percent from 1.52 percent late Tuesday. The falling yields broadly weighed down banks, which rely on higher yields to charge more lucrative interest on loans.

Several health care companies made solid gains.

Merck & Co. rose 2.3 percent after announcing a supply agreement with the U.S. and Canada for a potential COVID-19 treatment.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 7.71 points to 4,219.55. The Dow lost 152.68 points to 34,447.14, while the Nasdaq Composite gave up an early gain, shedding 13.16 points to 13,911.75. The tech-heavy index was lifted by the same Big Tech companies that have pushed it generally higher for the last 18 months. Microsoft Corp. rose 0.4 percent and Amazon.com Inc. added 0.5 percent.

The Russell 2000 index gave up 16.63 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,327.13.

Investors continue to focus a significant amount of attention on inflation. China’s producer price index, which measures prices of raw goods and services, jumped 9 percent from a year earlier in May, the fastest increase since 2008 and above analysts’ forecasts. Surging prices for oil and other commodities and manufacturing components such as semiconductors were the main factor behind the jump in producer prices there.

Aside from surging prices of raw materials, fuel and other items needed for manufacturing, factories are struggling to keep up with demand as the pandemic recedes in many places. That has pushed up prices of everything from food to household staples.

Investors will get closely watched U.S. inflation data today and how it might impact ultralow interest rates and other market supporting policies.

Elsewhere in the market, volatility in stocks embraced by investors using online forums like Reddit continued for another day Wednesday. Clover Health fell 23.6 percent while AMC Entertainment sank 10.4 percent. Wendy’s sank 12.7 percent after soaring 25.9 percent a day earlier.