01:13 PM EDT, 03/13/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes traded mixed after midday Wednesday as heavyweight technology shares retreated ahead of data to help the Federal Reserve decide on the timing of potential interest-rate cuts this year and after government bond yields rose.

The Nasdaq Composite declined 0.3% to 16,215.5 while the S&P 500 was little changed at 5,176.9 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5% to 39,183.2. Apart from technology, all other sectors rose intraday. Communication services and consumer discretionary were, however, among the slowest gainers.

In the short run, equity valuations are stretched, especially for sectors such as information technology, communication services, and consumer discretionary, according to the Wells Fargo Investment Institute. "But valuations alone are not a good timing mechanism. Fairly recent history [1999-2000] shows that the market can push valuations to even greater extremes before a meaningful pullback occurs."

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) slumped 3.7% intraday, with Nvidia ( NVDA ) down 2.6% and Broadcom ( AVGO ) 2.1% lower, the worst performers in the technology sector.

Meanwhile, the US 10-year Treasury yield rose 3.7 basis points to 4.19%, and the two-year advanced 1.7 basis points to 4.61%.

Investors are waiting on a range of economic data, including producer prices and retail sales on Thursday, to gauge the Federal Reserve's approach to interest-rate cuts, D.A. Davidson said in a research note.

Year-over-year, the headline and core consumer price indexes rose more than forecast Tuesday. The mainstream equity indexes still ended the day higher as the timing for the Fed to kick-start easing continued to favor June, as per the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

"Investors have pushed out expectations for the first-round rate reduction from March to June, but even this adjusted forecast may prove overly optimistic without ample improvement in the inflation data," Stifel Chief Economist Lindsey Piegza said in a note.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil jumped 2.6% to $79.55 per barrel intraday.

In company news, Dollar Tree ( DLTR ) swung to an unexpected fiscal Q4 net loss, weighed down by charges related to a review of its stores portfolio, and issued a downbeat profit outlook for the current three-month period. The discount retailer sank more than 14% intraday, the steepest share-price drop on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

Gold for April delivery on the Comex rose 0.6% to $2,178.5 per troy ounce. Silver surged 3% to $25.13 per troy ounce.