06:59 AM EDT, 03/11/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US equity investors will be monitoring the well-being of the so-called AI trade this week, with a focus on Nvidia ( NVDA ) , and look to consumer and wholesale price inflation for confirmation that the surprisingly hot January print a month ago was just a blip.

* Nvidia ( NVDA ) jumped 6.4% last week, but it slumped 5.5% Friday even though no negative catalyst drove the stock down. The sell-off in the poster child for all things artificial intelligence -- as well as a significant contributor to the recent rally in the Nasdaq Composite -- prompted concern the red-hot shares could be on the verge of giving up some of their outsized gains since November. Nvidia's ( NVDA ) shares were trading up 2% pre-bell on Monday.

* Tesla (TSLA), another mega-cap that's been a significant driver of stock market returns, slumped almost 14% last week. Other notable decliners in the technology and communications space included Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Amazon.com ( AMZN ) , and Microsoft ( MSFT ) .

* Last week ended with utilities as the top-performing sector. Consumer cyclical, home to companies such as Tesla and Amazon ( AMZN ); communication services, which hosts the likes of Alphabet; and technology, where Nvidia ( NVDA ) resides; led the steepest decliners.

* Inflation sprung a surprise when the January data released last month showed consumer and producer price inflation hotter than expected, dampening market expectations that the Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates as early as March. February's consumer price index is due Tuesday and the producer price index Thursday.

* "Was January's surge just a flash in the pan?," Derek Holt, head of capital markets economics at Scotiabank, said in a note. Tuesday's core CPI reading for February will help to inform this debate. It's the last CPI print before the March 20th FOMC statement plus the accompanying Summary of Economic Projections, including a refreshed dot plot."