US stock indexes ended slightly lower on Monday as investors reassessed the interest-rate outlook for this year ahead of the CPI (Consumer Price Index) report. The S&P 500 fell 0.1%, the Nasdaq dropped 0.3% and the Dow lost 61 points. A rise in oil prices pushed bond yields (returns on government debt) higher, stoking concern that energy-led inflation could keep price pressures elevated even as the labor market cools and potentially force the Federal Reserve to raise rates this year. Credit-sensitive shares were mixed, with financials mostly weaker as Visa slipped 0.3%, Amex fell 0.6% and Morgan Stanley lost 0.5%. Chipmakers led declines, with Nvidia down 2.9% amid reports that Wall Street giants are working with the company on a $500 billion AI funding package, while Intel dropped 4.1% as it prepared a $15 billion stock offering. Apple fell 1.5% after Jefferies cut the stock to underperform. Hyperscalers (very large cloud-computing providers) mostly rose after brokers pointed to strong demand for cloud services, lifting Microsoft 1.2% and SpaceX 4.2%.