US stock market: US stocks slipped on Tuesday, giving up modest gains late in the session to send the Dow and S&P 500 to their third straight decline, as investors awaited economic data in a holiday-shortened week to gauge the Federal Reserve's policy path.

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Stocks struggled for upward momentum even as Tesla (TSLA.O) gained 2.92 per cent after CEO Elon Musk unveiled the electric-vehicle maker's one-month trial of its Full Self-Driving technology to existing and new customers in the United States. The stock is up about 4 per cent for the week but remains down more than 28 per cent for the year.

The focus remains on a key reading of the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE), the Fed's preferred inflation gauge. The data is due on Friday, when US markets will be shut for the Good Friday holiday.

The index is expected to have risen 0.4 per cent in February and 2.5 per cent annually. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy components, is estimated to have advanced 0.3 per cent last month, keeping the annual pace at 2.8 per cent, economists polled by Reuters said.

"The big number is Friday. That's the number everyone's going to pay attention to and whatever happens in the meantime is going to be noise, so I don't anticipate a whole lot happening until we get that data point," said Stephen Massocca, senior vice president at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco.

"The one thing that would be death, death for this market is if somehow something came out that led people to believe that the fed funds rate has not topped out yet. If for some reason people thought the Fed was even giving an inkling to raising rates further, stand out of the way."

On the economic front, orders for long-lasting US manufactured goods increased more than expected in February, while business spending on equipment showed tentative signs of recovery. In a separate report, the Conference Board said its consumer confidence index was little changed at 104.7 in March.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 31.31 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 39,282.33. The S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 14.61 points, or 0.28 per cent, at 5,203.58 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) slid 68.77 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 16,315.70.

The three major US indexes hit record highs last week after the Fed maintained its projection for three interest-rate cuts this year.

Markets have been slowly increasing expectations the central bank will cut rates by at least 25 basis points in June, currently pricing in a 70.4 per cent chance, the CME's FedWatch Tool showed, up from 59.2 per cent last week.

Trump Media & Technology group jumped 16.1 per cent to close at $57.99 after surging as high as $79.38 as it kicked off its first day of trading after completing a reverse merger with a blank check firm.

McCormick (MKC.N) jumped 10.52 per cent as the best performer on the S&P 500 after the spice maker beat market expectations for first-quarter sales and profit. Seagate Technology (STX.O) climbed 7.38 per cent after Morgan Stanley upgraded the computer hard-drive maker's rating to "overweight" from "equal-weight."

United Parcel Service (UPS.N) shares tumbled 8.16 per cent, however, after announcing its 2026 forecast. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.24-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, declining issues outnumbered advancers by about a 1.34-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 33 new 52-week highs and one new low while the Nasdaq recorded 122 new highs and 124 new lows. Volume on US exchanges was 10.43 billion shares, compared with the 12.23 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. Trading volumes are expected to be light throughout the week, thinning out further as the holiday approaches.