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Advancing chipmakers help crimp losses

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Walt Disney ( DIS ) gains after Barclays upgrade

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Boeing ( BA ) CEO to step down in shakeup amid safety crisis;

shares up

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Indexes down: Dow 0.27%, S&P 0.15%, Nasdaq 0.11%

(Updated at 11:38 a.m. ET/ 1538 GMT)

By Shashwat Chauhan and Bansari Mayur Kamdar

March 25 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes eased at

the start of the holiday-shortened week on Monday as investors

looked forward to key inflation data later this week, while

advancing chip stocks kept losses on the tech-heavy Nasdaq in

check.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 0.5%,

with Micron Technology ( MU ) jumping 9.0% to a record high,

while industry heavyweight Nvidia ( NVDA ) climbed 1.6%.

Over the weekend, a report stated that

China had introduced guidelines

to phase out U.S. microprocessors supplied by Intel ( INTC )

and AMD from government personal computers and

servers. Intel ( INTC ) was down 1.2% while AMD, reversing earlier

losses, was last up 1.4%.

Both the S&P 500 and the Dow logged their

best weekly percentage gains so far this year on Friday, with

the Fed sticking to its guidance of three interest-rate cuts

this year.

Chicago Fed President

Austan Goolsbee

backed that claim and said he had penciled in three rate

cuts for this year, while Fed Governor

Lisa Cook

said the central bank needs to proceed with caution as it

decides when to start cutting interest rates.

Traders now see a nearly 71% chance of the Fed bringing in

the first cut in June, according to the CME FedWatch tool, up

from around 55% at the start of last week.

The crucial February reading of the Personal Consumption

Expenditures (PCE) price index, the Fed's preferred inflation

gauge, is due on Friday, when U.S. markets will be shut for the

Good Friday holiday.

A hot reading for the PCE index could dent market optimism

around early rate cuts.

Final estimates for fourth-quarter GDP and a March consumer

confidence reading are also due in the next few days and will

round off the March quarter's last trading week.

"We tend to discount market moves within plus or minus one

week of the end of a quarter, because a lot of institutional

flows that you typically see are putting investment policy

benchmarks back together," said Mike Dickson, head of research

at Horizon Investments.

"That makes the price action this week probably a little

less important than any other week that we've had this year."

At 11:38 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average

was down 105.96 points, or 0.27%, at 39,369.94, the S&P 500

was down 7.90 points, or 0.15%, at 5,226.28, and the

Nasdaq Composite was down 18.32 points, or 0.11%, at

16,410.50.

Eight of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were trading lower,

with communication services leading losses, down 0.6%,

while energy outpaced peers and was up 1.2%.

Boeing ( BA ) pared some gains and was last up 1.5% after it

announced a broad management shakeup and said CEO Dave Calhoun

would step down from his position at the end of 2024.

Walt Disney ( DIS ) gained 2.5% after Barclays upgraded

the stock to "overweight" from "equal weight".

Cryptocurrency and blockchain-related stocks such as

exchange operator Coinbase Global ( COIN ), crypto miner Riot

Platforms ( RIOT ) and software firm MicroStrategy ( MSTR )

added between 7.4% and 18.8%, tracking the recovery in bitcoin

.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.12-to-1 ratio

on the NYSE. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a

1.00-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 31 new 52-week highs and two new

lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 77 new highs and 69 new lows.