Stocks Edge Lower on Wall Street Ahead of Earnings Reports

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks edged lower in afternoon trading on Wall Street Monday ahead of the latest round of corporate earnings reports and a busy week of inflation updates.

The S&P 500 fell 0.6% as of 12:01 p.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 59 points, or 0.2%, to 29,243 and the Nasdaq fell 0.9%. Major indexes are coming off a volatile week where they notched out gains because of an early two-day rally that shielded stocks from several weak days. U.S. bond trading was closed.

Technology stocks were the biggest weights on the market. Makers of semiconductors and chip manufacturing equipment also suffered heavy selling after the U.S. government tightened export controls to limit China's ability to get advanced computing chips, develop and maintain supercomputers, and make advanced semiconductors. Nvidia fell 3.4%.

Industrial stocks made gains and helped temper losses elsewhere. Boeing rose 2.2% following reports that a 737 Max flight from Mongolia landed in China.

Wall Street has been turbulent amid worries about stubbornly hot inflation and the Federal Reserve's plan to tame high prices by raising interest rates. The goal is to slow economic growth and cool both borrowing and spending in order to get inflation under control, but the plan risks sending the economy into a recession.

Investors will potentially get a more detailed picture of the Fed's thinking on Wednesday when the central bank releases minutes from its latest policy meeting. That's when the Fed made another extra-big interest rate increase of three-quarters of a percentage point.

Wall Street will also get important updates on inflation and more insight into how that is impacting retail sales.

The government on Wednesday will release its report on producer prices, which will provide details for inflation on the wholesale level for businesses. The closely watched report on consumer prices will be released on Thursday and a report on retail sales will be released on Friday.

A busy week of closely watched economic reports comes amid the opening to the latest round of corporate earnings reports. Those reports, and statements from companies and corporate executives, could help provide a clearer picture of how high prices are impacting revenue and profits and the expectations for the rest of the year and even into 2023.

PepsiCo, Delta Air Lines and Walgreens are among the big companies reporting earnings this week. Several major banks will report their results on Friday, including JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.

Inflation and recession risks remain at the top of the list for big concerns, but COVID-19 and its potential to worsen already slowing economic growth continues to linger. Stocks fell in Hong Kong and Shanghai on news of more lockdowns in China due to rising COVID-19 cases. Markets in Tokyo were closed for a holiday.

Casino and resort operators with operations in China slumped over worries about the impact from more lockdowns. Wynn Resorts fell 11.7% and Las Vegas Sands fell 8.9%