U.S. stocks mostly lower as investors weigh recession fears, await inflation data plus earnings

How are stocks trading?

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average
  DJIA,
  +0.13%
  advanced 73 points, or 0.2%, to 33,558 after flipping between small gains and losses.
• The S&P 500
  SPX,
  -0.13%
  was down 5 points, or 0.1%, at 4,100.
• The Nasdaq Composite
  COMP,
  -0.29%
  shed 40 points, or 0.3%, to trade at 12,048.

What’s driving the markets?

Stocks were mostly lower on Monday, with Apple Inc.
AAPL,
-1.89%
leading the Dow industrial’s decliners after market intelligence provider International Data Corp. reported that global personal-computer shipments sank 29% from a year ago on weak demand, excess inventory, and a worsening economic environment. Apple shares fell 2% in afternoon trading.

More economic updates are on the way this week, with the focus on Wednesday’s consumer-price index reading for March, producer prices on Thursday and retail sales on Friday.

Also on Friday, some of the biggest Wall Street banks will mark the start of first-quarter earnings season, and the recent banking crisis has some analysts nervous about what to expect from those institutions. JPMorgan Chase JPM, Citigroup C and Wells Fargo WFC are among the big names expected to report.

Read: Banks on the line for deposit flows and margin pressure in Q1 updates as they reel from banking crisis

“For the most part, investors remain in complete wait-and-see mode to see which banks shake off the March concerns faster than others, and what might be coming next from management guidance,” said Jim Vogel, executive vice president at FHN Financial in Memphis. Meanwhile, “you’ve got a belief that the Fed is going to raise rates in a couple of weeks, removing some of the optimism from last week that the Fed might be done raising rates for a while,” he said via phone.

Prior hopes that the Federal Reserve’s rate-hiking program might be nearing an end have helped interest-rate sensitive tech stocks gain 15% year to date as of Monday, outperforming an almost 7% rise for the S&P 500 and a 1% gain for the Dow.

But data released last Friday showed the U.S. added 236,000 new jobs in March, undercutting hopes for a big slowdown in hiring and possibly opening the door to another interest-rate hike in May. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had predicted 238,000 new jobs would be created. The unemployment rate edged down to 3.5% from 3.6% and hourly wages rose a mild 0.3%.

Geopolitical concerns were also on the radar, analysts said. On Monday, China’s military said it is “ready to fight” after completing three days of large-scale combat exercises around Taiwan that simulated sealing off the island in response to the Taiwanese president’s trip to the U.S. last week, the Associated Press reported.

“With Wall Street and Main Street all on high alert for this week’s release of March inflation data and the kick off to first-quarter earnings season, volatility and uncertainty remain the leading market narrative as investors look to hang their hats on any signs of economic normalcy not seen in a while due to the combination of ongoing mixed economic data, Fed policy uncertainties, an inconsistent corporate earnings outlook, and ongoing geopolitical tensions, such as with Russia and China,” said Greg Bassuk, CEO of AXS Investments, in emailed comments.

Companies in focus

• Shares of electric-vehicle maker Tesla Inc. 
  TSLA,
  -0.44%
  fell 1.4%, on track for a fifth straight decline, after data showed growth in automobile sales in China slowed sharply in March.
• Shares of Micron Technology Inc. 
  MU,
  +8.27%
  rose 8.3%, as production cuts announced by rival Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. 
  005930,
  +1.08%
  provided a boost. 
• Shares of Tupperware Brands Corp.
  TUP,
  -47.52%
  plunged 49% after the food storage products maker issued a going-concern warning late Friday, saying it had hired financial advisers to help steer it through near-term challenges.

— Barbara Kollmeyer contributed to this article.