US Stocks Drift Ahead of Reports       12/15 09:34

   Wall Street is drifting in mixed trading on Monday at the start of a week 
full of economic reports that could drive where interest rates, and thus stock 
prices, go.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street is drifting in mixed trading on Monday at the 
start of a week full of economic reports that could drive where interest rates, 
and thus stock prices, go.

   The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in morning trading, coming off its first 
losing week in the last three. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 5 
points, or less than 0.1%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite 
was 0.2% lower.

   Helping to keep the overall market in check were stocks in the 
artificial-intelligence industry, which were mixed following their scary swings 
last week.

   Nvidia, the chip company that's become the face of the AI boom, rose 1.1%. 
It was one of the strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500 Monday after 
dropping 4.1% last week.

   But Oracle sank another 4.3% following its 12.7% tumble last week, which was 
its worst in more than seven years. Broadcom fell 2.7%.

   AI stocks have been shaky on worries that all the billions of dollars 
flowing into chips and data centers may not produce a big-enough payoff of 
profits and productivity 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 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 that U.S. consumers are feeling, 
and economists expect it to show inflation was at 3.1% last month, still higher 
than households and policymakers would like.

   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 the economy and prices for investments a boost, 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 in the bond market 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 fell to 4.15% from 4.19% late Friday.

   Elsewhere on Wall Street, shares of iRobot tumbled 66.8% 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 court-supervised process.

   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.