Stock market today: Wall Street slips as bond yields ease ahead of inflation report WSB-TV Channel 2 [Video]

NEW YORK — (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are slipping Tuesday, as traders make their final moves before several potentially market-moving reports later in the week.

The S&P 500 was 0.3% lower in afternoon trading after erasing an early, modest gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 143 points, or 0.4%, as of 1:16 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.

Treasury yields were easing in the bond market ahead of Wednesday’s highly anticipated update on inflation at the U.S. consumer level. This week will also bring other reports on inflation, while big U.S. companies will begin delivering their reports for how much profit they made during the first three months of the year.

The question hanging over Wall Street is whether inflation will cool enough to convince the Federal Reserve to deliver the cuts to interest ratesthat traders are craving and have been betting on. Some doubts have crept in …