By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal
(Reuters) -The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq dropped in choppy trading on Monday, weighed by AI-favorite Nvidia ahead of its results later in the week, while markets awaited a key inflation report and cemented bets on an imminent interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
Nvidia dropped 2.3%, leading declines among chip stocks and sending the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index down 2.5% ahead of the chip designer's highly anticipated earnings on Wednesday. The broader Technology sector also lost over 1%.
Markets have been less forgiving this quarter of highly valued megacap stocks, which spearheaded the excitement around artificial intelligence.
Nvidia's earnings will be scrutinized to justify the stock's more than 160% year-to-date jump, which pushed its market cap value to No. 2, just below Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s, as of Friday's close.
"Nvidia's on tap. People are taking a little money off the table, saying, well, we've earned some money," said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners. "Their forecast for the next six months or so is probably the most important data that we get this week."
Other growth names such as Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shed 3%, while Meta fell 1.4% and Apple lost 0.8%.
At 11:47 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 10.14 points, or 0.02%, at 41,185.22, the S&P 500 was down 22.99 points, or 0.41%, at 5,611.62, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 168.87 points, or 0.94%, at 17,708.93.
The Energy sector bucked the trend to rise 0.6%, as reports of oil supply disruptions amid the geopolitical conflict in the Middle East lifted crude prices. [O/R]
Other areas in the market, including financials stocks such as American Express (NYSE:AXP) and consumer staples such as Proctor & Gamble, also saw gains, limiting declines on the blue-chip Dow, which hit an intraday record high earlier in the day.
The main indexes rallied more than 1% on Friday, with the benchmark S&P 500 nearing record highs after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said "the time has come" to lower borrowing costs in the light of a diminishing upside risk to inflation and moderating labor demand.
Traders are now betting on either a 25-basis-point or a 50-basis-point rate cut in September. Odds of the former stand at 67.5%, while odds of a 50-bps cut are at 34.5%, according to the CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME) FedWatch tool.
Friday's highly anticipated Personal Consumption Expenditure data for July, the central bank's preferred inflation gauge, could provide more insight into the policy easing trajectory.
Results from Dell, Salesforce, Dollar General (NYSE:DG) and Gap are also expected through the week.
Among others, U.S.-listed shares of PDD Holdings sank 29.8% after the Temu-owner missed market expectations for second-quarter revenue.
Boeing (NYSE:BA) slipped 1.4% after NASA picked SpaceX over the planemaker's Starliner to return its astronauts from space next year.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.41-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 1.19-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 91 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 127 new highs and 26 new lows.