By Twesha Dikshit and Purvi Agarwal

(Reuters) -Wall Street's main indexes fell on Thursday as caution prevailed ahead of indications on the U.S. economy and the monetary policy path after President Donald Trump signed a bill ending the longest government shutdown in the country's history.

Markets will closely monitor the flow of official data, as a prolonged absence left both the Federal Reserve and traders guessing on the economy's health and reliant on private sources.

Still, some data gaps are likely to be permanent, with the White Housing saying employment and Consumer Price Indexes reports for October might never be released.

"While we always expected that many data points missed during the shutdown will remain dark, there are questions about what the inflation and jobs data will look like once these reports come back online," said Carol Schleif, chief market strategist at BMO Private Wealth.

"We would not be surprised to see some market chop over the coming weeks..."

At 9:35 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 87.01 points, or 0.18%, to 48,167.81, the S&P 500 lost 36.03 points, or 0.53%, to 6,814.89 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 214.17 points, or 0.87%, to 23,192.28.

Information technology stocks and communication services were the biggest drags on the S&P 500. Heavyweights Nvidia and Alphabet lost 2.6% and 2.3% respectively.

However, Cisco Systems rose 4.5% after the company raised full-year profit and revenue forecasts betting on demand for its networking equipment.

Technology and AI names have come under pressure lately, with the Nasdaq set for its third session of declines, as investors rotated out of pricey tech stocks into traditionally defensive areas such as healthcare.

The Dow has benefited from the rotation, notching back-to-back record highs after lagging the S&P and the Nasdaq this year.

AI bellwether Nvidia's earnings next week could further test the optimism around the technology which has driven markets to record highs this year.

Walt Disney fell 8.9%, weighing on the Dow. The media giant signaled it was grinding for a potentially prolonged fight with YouTube TV over distribution of its cable channels.

Recently, data from payroll processor ADP showed private employers shed over 11,000 jobs a week through late October and Indeed Hiring Lab showed a 16% drop in retail-related job postings in October from a year-ago, pointing to continued weakness in the labor market.

Still, several Fed speakers expressed scepticism over another interest rate cut in December, prompting investors to scale back bets. Comments from more policymakers will be parsed through the day.

Traders are currently pricing in an about 53% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut in December, lower than last week's 70%, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.

Among others, Sealed Air shares jumped 19.6%, after reports said equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice was in talks to acquire the packaging company.

Memory device makers Western Digital and Sandisk dropped 5.4% and 8% respectively each after half-yearly results from Japan's Kioxia Holdings.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.34-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.94-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted six new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 20 new highs and 55 new lows.