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Tesla to give customers one-month driver-assist trial;

shares up

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McCormick ( MKC ) jumps after Q1 profit, sales beat

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Trump Media & Technology surges in debut after SPAC merger

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Indexes down: Dow 0.08%, S&P 500 0.28%, Nasdaq 0.42%

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK, March 26 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slipped on

Tuesday, giving up modest gains late in the session to send the

Dow and S&P 500 to their third straight decline, as investors

awaited economic data in a holiday-shortened week to gauge the

Federal Reserve's policy path.

Stocks struggled for upward momentum even as Tesla

gained 2.92% after CEO Elon Musk unveiled the electric-vehicle

maker's one-month trial of its Full Self-Driving technology to

existing and new customers in the United States. The stock is up

about 4% for the week but remains down more than 28% for the

year.

The focus remains on a key reading of the Personal

Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE), the Fed's preferred

inflation gauge. The data is due on Friday, when U.S. markets

will be shut for the Good Friday holiday.

The index is expected to have risen 0.4% in February and

2.5% annually. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and

energy components, is estimated to have advanced 0.3% last

month, keeping the annual pace at 2.8%, economists polled by

Reuters said.

"The big number is Friday. That's the number everyone's

going to pay attention to and whatever happens in the meantime

is going to be noise, so I don't anticipate a whole lot

happening until we get that data point," said Stephen Massocca,

senior vice president at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco.

"The one thing that would be death, death for this market is

if somehow something came out that led people to believe that

the fed funds rate has not topped out yet. If for some reason

people thought the Fed was even giving an inkling to raising

rates further, stand out of the way."

On the economic front, orders for long-lasting U.S.

manufactured goods increased more than expected in February,

while business spending on equipment showed tentative signs of

recovery. In a separate report, the Conference Board said its

consumer confidence index was little changed at 104.7 in March.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 31.31 points,

or 0.08%, to 39,282.33. The S&P 500 lost 14.61 points, or

0.28%, at 5,203.58 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 68.77

points, or 0.42%, to 16,315.70.

The three major U.S. indexes hit record highs last week

after the Fed maintained its projection for three interest-rate

cuts this year.

Markets have been slowly increasing expectations the central

bank will cut rates by at least 25 basis points in June,

currently pricing in a 70.4% chance, the CME's FedWatch Tool

showed, up from 59.2% last week.

Trump Media & Technology group jumped 16.1% to close

at $57.99 after surging as high as $79.38 as it kicked off its

first day of trading after completing a reverse merger with a

blank check firm.

McCormick ( MKC ) jumped 10.52% as the best performer on the

S&P 500 after the spice maker beat market expectations for

first-quarter sales and profit.

Seagate Technology ( STX ) climbed 7.38% after Morgan

Stanley upgraded the computer hard-drive maker's rating to

"overweight" from "equal-weight."

United Parcel Service ( UPS ) shares tumbled 8.16%, however,

after announcing its 2026 forecast.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.24-to-1 ratio

on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, declining issues outnumbered

advancers by about a 1.34-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 33 new 52-week highs and one new low

while the Nasdaq recorded 122 new highs and 124 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.43 billion shares, compared

with the 12.23 billion average for the full session over the

last 20 trading days.

Trading volumes are expected to be light throughout the

week, thinning out further as the holiday approaches.