us stocks traded lower tuesday afternoon with cautious investors digesting more earnings reports ahead of white house negotiations on the debt ceiling later tuesday and inflation data due wednesday on monday the dow jones industrial average fell 56 points or 017 to 33619 the sp 500 increased 2 points or 005 to 4138 and the nasdaq composite gained 22 points or 018 to 12257 with marketmoving events on the horizon theres a waitandsee riskoff dynamic at play for now the us consumerprices report for april will be published on wednesday and investors hope to see inflation continuing to ease that could allow the federal reserve to consider reducing interest rates later this year of course fed chair jerome powell and other central bankers may differ with investors over the prospect of rate cuts in 2023 fedfundfutures traders have priced in an 82 chance that the us central bank will pause raising its key interest rate at its june meeting and a large chance that the fed will deliver at least one rate cut by the end of this year however federal reserve officials at their last meeting left the door open to respond to data as it comes in said william northey senior investment director at us bank wealth management so if inflation remains stubbornly high we would expect that the federal reserve will rise to that objective and keep rates higher for longer than perhaps is priced into markets at this point in time though not necessarily raising additionally northey said economists anticipate that yearoveryear inflation rates in april stayed at 5 but that core inflation  which strips out volatile energy and food costs  could cool slightly according to economists polled by the wall street journal in march the annualized inflation rate declined to 5 from 6 meanwhile president joe biden and house speaker kevin mccarthy are scheduled to meet tuesday after the market close for negotiations over lifting the debt ceiling dont expect any deal yet analysts say despite all the drama billionaire bill gross says the negotiations will eventually culminate in a deal which makes the rising yield on shortterm treasury debt extra alluring stocks rallied at the end of last week helping to push the sp 500 back toward the top of the 3800to4200 range it has held all year after sturdy jobs data eased fears of a sharp economic slowdown northey said he views this period of time as the chop period between two repricings that have affected the capital market the first repricing largely has impacted all cashflowing assets by virtue of rising interest rates said northey the second repricing and ultimately the reason for sps choppiness between this trading range is based on the fact that the us economy and the global economy are slowing but the range of outcomes remains incredibly wide the sp 500 index is trading at a forward pricetoearnings ratio of 177 which makes it pricy relative to the 10year average of 173 and potentially vulnerable to increased volatility if the economy weakens further and if the outlook for already weakening earnings worsens according to josé torres senior economist at interactive brokers the immediate trading focus might be on the next data point or news development around the corner said jay woods chief global strategist at freedom capital markets but the pockets of volatility spurred on particular data points are one part of a bigger story its been a rangebound market where sideways  instead of up and down  is a common move read also why the stock market cant break through the 4200 ceiling on the sp 500 still woods is an optimist when we retreat we are making a higher low he said what this market is doing right now the strongest stocks in each individual sector are rising to top its not bringing everything with it he said at the same time woods added laggards are not making new lows this is constructive this is how bottoms are formed he said there were no major us economic updates released on tuesday but there was some commentary from federal reserve officials the economy has started to slow in an orderly fashion fed gov philip jefferson said according to a reuters report he spoke a day after a new fed survey of loan officers showed banks continuing to tighten their commercial and consumerlending standards new york fed president john williams on tuesday afternoon said fed officials are going to be basing their future interestrate decisions on all of the data in front of them whats more earnings season continues but at a slower pace among those reporting on tuesday are nikola corp nkla fox corp foxa under armour inc uaa and warner music group corp wmg all before the opening bell and electronic arts inc ea airbnb inc abnb and dutch bros inc bros after the close this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal