US STOCKS-Wall St ends lower as investors await 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

(Adds closing prices, comment, details;)
By David French
April 12 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 .SPX and Dow Jones
industrial average .DJI ended lower on Monday, with investors
waiting for cues from the upcoming corporate earnings season and
a key inflation report later this week.
Stocks sold off after strong gains in recent days that were
driven by a pullback in the benchmark 10-year bond yield
US10YT=RR from 14-month highs.
With U.S. consumer price data for March due to be published
Tuesday, this could drive Treasury yields higher. Big Wall
Street names are due to kick off earnings season on Wednesday,
giving new catalysts to buy or sell off stocks in a record-high
market. "Investors are now going to pay close attention to earnings
season, because this is the time where they are expecting
guidance from companies, where valuations start to matter
again," said Ed Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.
"There's this nervousness that we're going to see that we
can't just buy everything, as that was the trade for the last
few months."
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Sunday the U.S.
economy was at an "inflection point" with expectations that
growth will pick up speed in the months ahead, but he warned
that a hasty reopening could lead to a continued increase in
coronavirus cases. S&P 500 earnings are expected to have jumped 25% in the
quarter from a year ago, according to Refinitiv IBES data. That
would be the biggest quarterly gain since 2018, when tax cuts
under former President Donald Trump boosted profit growth.
Banks are among the first to report earnings for the opening
quarter of 2021, with Goldman Sachs GS.N , JPMorgan JPM.N and
Wells Fargo WFC.N due on Wednesday.
The financials index .SPSY and consumer discretionary
sector .SPLRCD both hit record highs on Monday, reflecting
confidence in both areas as the U.S. economy reopens.
"The optimism is improving now that these banks are going to
return to normal, with buybacks and dividends, and because of
the outlook for Treasury yields, they are going to have a better
outlook going forward," said OANDA's Moya.
Among the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes, communication
services .SPLRCL and energy .SPNY shares were the steepest
decliners.
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
0.16% to end at 33,745.86 points, while the S&P 500 .SPX lost
0.02% to 4,128.1. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 0.36% to
13,850.00.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O rose after Canaccord Genuity upgraded the
electric-car maker's shares to "buy," saying the company could
become "the brand" in energy storage. U.S. shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd 9988.HK BABA.N
jumped after the ecommerce company said it expected no material
impact from China's antitrust crackdown that pushes it to
overhaul how it deals with merchants. Shares of Nuance Communications Inc NUAN.O surged after
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O said it would buy the artificial
intelligence and speech technology company in a $19.7 billion
deal.