Wall Street starts week edging lower

Market hopeful of reports on inflation, consumer spending

The major U.S. stock indexes ended slightly lower Monday as Wall Street looks ahead to updates on inflation and how American consumers are feeling about the economy.

The S&P 500 slipped

0.2 percent. The benchmark index was coming off a holiday-shortened week in the

United States and its fourth straight winning week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also closed 0.2 percent lower, while the Nasdaq composite dropped 0.1 percent.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 8.91 points to 4,550.43. The Dow slipped 56.68 points to 35,333.47, and the Nasdaq lost 9.83 points to 14,241.02.

Health care, communication services and industrial stocks were among the biggest drags on the market.

Eli Lilly & Co. fell 1.6 percent, Meta Platforms slid 1 percent and Union Pacific closed 2 percent lower.

Technology stocks and companies that rely on consumer spending were bright spots. Chipmaker Nvidia rose 1 percent and Amazon. com gained 0.7 percent.

Shopify climbed

4.4 percent after the cloudbased commerce company announced a Black Friday record for worldwide sales of $4.1 billion from its merchants.

In the bond market, Treasury yields fell broadly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences interest rates on mortgages and other loans, fell to 4.39 percent from 4.47 percent late Friday. The yield on the 2-year Treasury slid to 4.88 percent from 4.95 percent.

Stocks closed mostly lower in Asia and Europe.

Investors have grown cautiously optimistic that inflation has cooled enough for the Federal Reserve to put a definitive end to its aggressive interest rate hikes. Meanwhile, the broader economy has remained strong enough in the face of rising interest rates and inflation to avoid a recession.

Markets have been rallying on that sentiment and the S&P 500 remains on track to close out November as its best month of the year. Investors will get more updates on the economy this week to help either confirm or soften that sentiment.

On Tuesday, the Conference Board issues its latest report on consumer confidence, which has remained solid throughout the year. Economists polled by Factset expect another solid reading for the October report.

Meanwhile, the price of U.S. crude oil fell 0.9 percent Monday, remaining mostly stable ahead of OPEC’S meeting on Thursday.