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Nvidia ( NVDA ) climbs after TSMC's April sales jump

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Novavax ( NVAX ) surges on revoking going concern doubts, Sanofi

deal

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SoundHound gains after Q1 revenue beat

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Indexes: Dow up 0.15%, S&P flat, Nasdaq off 0.21%

(Updated at 12:03 p.m. ET/1603 GMT)

By Sruthi Shankar and Shristi Achar A

May 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes were mixed on

Friday, but looked on track for weekly gains ahead of key

inflation readings next week that could provide more clues on

how soon the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates.

Recent data indicating a cooling U.S. labor market and a

much better-than-expected earnings season have put the benchmark

S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite on

track for their third consecutive week of gains.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose for

an eighth straight session, its longest daily winning run since

December, and was set for a fourth week of gains.

The University of Michigan's survey, however, took some

shine off these gains as it showed U.S. consumer sentiment

sagged to a six-month low in May amid growing anxiety about

inflation, unemployment and interest rates. Its reading of

one-year and five-year inflation expectations rose.

Analysts noted they were focused on next week's consumer

prices data to get more clarity on the Fed's monetary policy

agenda. The consumer price index for April is seen cooling to

3.4% on a year-over-year basis, down from 3.5% in the previous

month.

"This one will be very important because if we don't see

some signs of inflation decelerating, that would be worrisome

for markets," said Ronald Temple, chief market strategist at

Lazard.

A softer-than-expected employment report last week reignited

bets that the Fed will make two 25 basis point interest rate

cuts this year.

Traders are currently pricing in rate cuts of 41 basis

points by the end of 2024, according to LSEG's rate

probabilities tool, with the first cut of 25 bps seen in

September.

Tempering optimism about potential rate cuts, however,

Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan said on Friday it's not clear

if monetary policy is tight enough to bring inflation down to

the U.S. central bank's 2% goal, and with price pressures still

too strong, it is too soon for rate cuts.

At 12:03 p.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose

57.48 points, or 0.15%, to 39,445.24, the S&P 500 gained

0.36 points, or 0.01%, to 5,214.46 and the Nasdaq Composite

lost 33.79 points, or 0.21%, to 16,312.48.

Most megacap stocks including Tesla, Alphabet

and Apple ( AAPL ) slipped as U.S. Treasury yields

rose.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) gained 0.8% after Taiwan Semiconductor

Manufacturing Co ( TSM ), the world's largest chipmaker and a

major supplier to Nvidia ( NVDA ), reported a near 60% jump in April

sales.

Novavax ( NVAX ) shares more than doubled in value after the

vaccine maker removed doubts about its ability to remain in

business and struck a licensing deal worth up to $1.2 billion

with Sanofi for COVID-19 vaccines.

SoundHound AI ( SOUN ) jumped 11% after its first-quarter

revenue beat market estimates.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.39-to-1 ratio

on the NYSE and by a 1.67-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 56 new 52-week highs and no new lows

while the Nasdaq recorded 151 new highs and 73 new lows.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Shristi Achar A in Bengaluru;

Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Shinjini Ganguli)