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Producer prices increase more than expected in April

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Fed's Powell: PPI 'mixed', next move unlikely to be a rate

hike

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Meme stocks extend gains from Monday

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Alibaba falls after Q4 profit drop

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Indexes up: Dow 0.11%, S&P 0.18%, Nasdaq 0.43%

(Updated at 11:15 a.m. ET/ 1515 GMT)

By Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Shristi Achar A

May 14 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes inched up

on Tuesday as investors assessed a mixed producer prices reading

and awaited crucial consumer prices data due later this week

that could provide more clarity on the interest rate path in the

world's No.1 economy.

U.S. producer prices increased more than expected in April

amid strong gains in the costs of services and goods, leading

traders to pare back bets of a first rate cut in September.

"Investors are looking backwards at some of the revisions of

PPI and saying, well, that wasn't all that bad, but you still

wind up with a fairly hot number," said Paul Nolte, portfolio

manager at Kingsview Asset Management.

"What investors may also be looking at is that maybe some of

that flows through to earnings for a lot of companies in the way

of higher prices."

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell also said the PPI report

was more "mixed" than "hot" given that prior data was revised

lower.

Powell added that he did not expect the central bank's next

move on interest rates to be an increase, despite the recent run

of higher-than-expected inflation.

Focus will now be on Wednesday's consumer price figures to

help assess whether the upside surprises in the first quarter

were a blip or a worrying trend.

Sticky inflation and persistent labor market strength have

prompted financial markets and most economists to push back

expectations for an initial Fed interest rate cut to September,

from March seen at the start of the year.

Still, stocks have rallied so far this year, with all three

major U.S. indexes hovering near fresh record highs thanks to

better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter and hopes

that the Fed will cut rates sometime this year.

At 11:15 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average

was up 41.64 points, or 0.11%, at 39,473.15, the S&P 500

was up 9.36 points, or 0.18%, at 5,230.78, and the Nasdaq

Composite was up 69.83 points, or 0.43%, at 16,458.07.

U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba shed 6.7% after

reporting an 86% drop in fourth-quarter profit.

On Holding climbed 15.7% after the footwear maker

posted a beat-and-raise quarter for sales on strong demand for

its running shoes.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled a bundle of

steep tariff increases on an array of Chinese imports including

electric vehicles, computer chips and medical products.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese EV maker Li Auto slid

2.5%, while Tesla gained 4.3% to lead gains among

megacap growth and technology stocks.

GameStop ( GME ) jumped 73.5%, set to extend its rally after

flag bearer Roaring Kitty posted on X.com for the first time in

three years.

Other 2021 meme rally participants and highly shorted stocks

such as AMC Entertainment ( AMC ) and Koss Corp ( KOSS ) rose

88.6% and 46.2%, respectively.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.78-to-1 ratio

on the NYSE and by a 2.23-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 25 new 52-week highs and no new lows,

while the Nasdaq recorded 38 new highs and 32 new lows.

(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Shristi Achar A in

Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Devika Syamnath)