US STOCKS-S&P 500, Dow slip from record highs ahead of earnings, inflation data

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* Tesla rises as Canaccord Genuity upgrades stock
* Alibaba shrugs off $2.75 bln antitrust fine, shares jump
* Big bank earnings to kick off from Wednesday
* Indexes down: Dow 0.09%, S&P 0.11%, Nasdaq 0.54%

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By Shivani Kumaresan
April 12 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones indexes
retreated from record levels on Monday, as investors geared up
for the start of the corporate reporting season and a key
inflation report later this week.
A pullback in the benchmark 10-year bond yield US10YT=RR
from 14-month highs in April eased worries about higher
borrowing costs, helping richly valued technology stocks gain
ground and drive the S&P 500 and the Dow to record levels.
"We are seeing a little bit of a reversal from last week
where the tech sector was strong, the financials and energy were
weak. Today we see the opposite, so it is profit taking," said
Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital
Securities in New York.
Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, technology .SPLRCT
and communication services shares .SPLRCL were the top
decliners, after the Russell 1000 Growth index .RLG
outperformed the Russell 1000 Value index .RLV for the last
two consecutive weeks.
U.S. consumer price data for March and $271 billion of U.S.
Treasury auction this week could end a recent lull in the bond
market, reigniting a rise in yields that worried investors in
the first quarter. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Sunday said the U.S.
economy is at an "inflection point" with expectations that
growth will pick up speed in the months ahead, but also risks if
a hasty reopening leads to a continued increase in coronavirus
cases. "With all the macro things coming out and the bond auctions,
a fight is brewing between the bond market and the Fed. The only
thing that's going to come to the rescue is earnings and
guidance. This first quarter is going to be compared to
pre-pandemic time," Cardillo said.
Goldman Sachs GS.N , JPMorgan JPM.N and Wells Fargo
WFC.N will kick off the first-quarter earnings season on
Wednesday, giving investors a new catalyst to either buy or sell
off stocks in a market at all-time highs. S&P 500 earnings are expected to have jumped 25% in the
quarter from a year ago, according to Refinitiv IBES data, the
biggest quarterly gain since 2018, when tax cuts under former
President Donald Trump drove a surge in profit growth.
At 11:55 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 29.74 points, or 0.09%, at 33,770.86, the S&P 500
.SPX was down 4.59 points, or 0.11%, at 4,124.21 and the
Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down 75.02 points, or 0.54%, at
13,825.17.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O rose 2.8% after Canaccord Genuity
upgraded the electric-car maker's shares to "buy" and said the
company could become "the brand" in energy storage. U.S. shares of Alibaba BABA.N jumped 9.1% after the
ecommerce company said it does not expect any material impact
from the antitrust crackdown in China that will push it to
overhaul how it deals with merchants. Shares of Nuance Communications Inc NUAN.O surged 16.7% as
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O said it will buy the artificial
intelligence and speech technology company in a $19.7 billion
deal. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.15-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 2.01-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.