Financial Markets                      12/15 15:22

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street drifted through a quiet day of trading on 
Monday, ahead of economic reports this week that could drive where interest 
rates go.

   The S&P 500 slipped 0.2%, though the majority of stocks within the index 
rose. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 41 points, or 0.1%, and the 
Nasdaq composite fell 0.6%.

   Helping to keep indexes in check were stocks in the artificial-intelligence 
industry, which were mixed following last week's scary swings.

   Nvidia, the chip company that's become the face of the AI boom, added 0.7%. 
It was one of the strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500 after dropping 
4.1% last week.

   But Oracle sank another 2.7% following its 12.7% tumble last week, which was 
its worst in more than seven years. Broadcom fell 5.6%.

   AI stocks have been shaky on worries that the billions of dollars flowing 
into chips and data centers may not produce a big-enough payoff to make it 
worth it. The doubts are causing cracks for the industry, whose earlier surges 
was the main driver for the U.S. market's rally to records.

   Besides AI, the main focus on Wall Street this week will be on what several 
big updates on the U.S. economy's health say.

   On Tuesday will come the jobs report for November, and economists expect it 
to show employers added 40,000 more jobs than they cut during the month. 
Thursday will bring an update on the inflation, and economists expect it to 
show U.S. consumers paid prices that were 3.1% higher in November than a year 
before.

   Such data is under the microscope because the Federal Reserve is trying to 
figure out if a slowing job market or high inflation is the bigger problem for 
the economy. The Fed is in a potentially tough spot because fixing one of those 
problems by moving interest rates would likely worsen the other in the short 
term.

   The hope on Wall Street is that the job market weakens, but only by a 
little: enough to get the Fed to lower interest rates but not so much that a 
recession swamps the economy. Wall Street loves lower rates because they can 
give a boost to the economy and prices for investments, even if they also may 
worsen inflation.

   "With the Fed still appearing to be more focused on labor-market weakness 
than inflation, we're likely facing a 'bad news is good' scenario for the jobs 
report," according to Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, 
at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.

   "As long as the numbers don't suggest employment is falling off a cliff," 
that would mean the market would likely welcome soft numbers, he said.

   The spotlight will be brightest on the unemployment rate, not the overall 
job growth numbers, because the latter is feeling downward pressure from a 
drop-off in immigrant workers. Economists expect Tuesday's report to show the 
unemployment rate at 4.4%, which would keep it near its highest and worst level 
since 2021.

   Treasury yields eased a bit ahead of the updates. A report earlier on Monday 
morning also said that a measure of manufacturing strength in New York state 
unexpectedly weakened, when economists expected to see continued growth.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.18% from 4.19% late Friday.

   Elsewhere on Wall Street, shares of iRobot tumbled nearly 73% to $1.18 after 
the maker of Roomba vacuums said holders of its stock will likely face a total 
loss after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over the weekend. The 
company has reached an agreement with its primary contract manufacturer, Picea, 
to buy it through a process supervised by a U.S. bankruptcy court.

   All told, the S&P 500 slipped 10.90 points to 6,816.51. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average dipped 41.49 to 48,416.56, and the Nasdaq composite fell 
137.76 to 23,057.41.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following weaker finishes in 
Asia.

   Indexes fell 1.3% in Hong Kong and 0.6% in Shanghai after the Chinese 
government reported a drop in investment in factory equipment, infrastructure 
and other fixed assets. It's the latest signal that demand in the world's 
second-largest economy remains weak.

   Japan's Nikkei 225 sank 1.3% after a quarterly survey of big manufacturers 
by the central bank showed a slight improvement in sentiment. That could 
encourage the Bank of Japan to go ahead with a hike to interest rates.

   ___

   AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

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