By Jessica Menton and David Hodari 

The S&P 500 slipped Tuesday as declines in utilities shares offset gains in consumer-discretionary stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 41 points, or 0.2%, to 25874, after climbing more than 100 points in early trading. The S&P 500 dipped 0.1% while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.1%.

Shares of consumer-discretionary companies in the S&P 500 rose 0.5% while utilities stocks shed 1.5%.

Boeing shares, which have come under pressure recently, rose 0.4% as U.S. federal investigators probe the development of the Boeing 737 MAX that has been involved in two fatal crashes in the past five months. Technology giant IBM, meanwhile, ticked up 0.4%.

Meanwhile, Revlon shares slumped 6.4% after the cosmetics retailer found a "material weakness" in its internal controls over its financial reporting.

Major averages retreated from session highs in afternoon trading after The Wall Street Journal reported that top U.S. and China negotiators are planning new rounds of talks to end a trade dispute between the world's two biggest economies, with a target date for a deal by the end of April.

The conflict has rattled financial markets in recent months amid renewed concerns over slowing economic growth around the world. Investors are also awaiting meetings of both the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England later in the week. Market participants will be watching the central banks' statements for signals on the health of global growth and the potential impact of political risk events such as U.S.-China trade negotiations and Brexit.

"Investors have had a lot of anxiety over the Fed's policy path over the past year," said Ann Miletti, managing director and co-lead portfolio manager at Wells Fargo Asset Management. "We don't have certainty the trade deal with China or that domestic growth is OK yet. We think a lot of the weakness in U.S. data is due to seasonality, the partial government shutdown and tariffs that were put in place, but we need more proof of that with positive data in the second quarter."

The Fed's monetary-policy statement, expected Wednesday, is a particular focus. Weakening data out of several major economies in recent months have prompted jitters, with 30% of fund managers surveyed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch citing a slowdown in Chinese growth as the biggest risk to global markets. That overtook the prospect of a trade war, which had been investors' biggest fear for the previous nine months.

What market participants had seen as overly aggressive Fed policy also sparked market worries in late 2018, prompting Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to give increasingly dovish briefings in 2019. Mr. Powell has said the central bank will rely on data to inform future decisions.

The bank is set to release an updated chart of its officials' individual projections for interest rates on Wednesday at the end of their two-day meeting. CME Group data forecast around one interest-rate increase during 2019, although those polled predicted a 98.7% likelihood of the Fed leaving rates unchanged at its March meeting.

"There's a lot priced into the Fed remaining dovish," said Shannon Saccocia, chief investment officer at wealth management company Boston Private. "If they come out and say they expect one rate raise this year and that they remain data dependent, that would be a rangebound positive for markets."

The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note ticked up Tuesday to 2.609%, according to Tradeweb, from 2.605% Monday. Yields rise as bond prices fall. The WSJ Dollar Index was down 0.1%.

In commodities, U.S. crude futures ticked down to 0.2% to $59.01 a barrel, easing from Monday's gains after OPEC and its allies recommitted to production cuts until the end of June.

Elsewhere, the Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.6%. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.2%.

Write to Jessica Menton at Jessica.Menton@wsj.com and David Hodari at David.Hodari@dowjones.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 19, 2019 15:44 ET (19:44 GMT)

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