NEW YORK, March 13 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 was little changed on Wednesday afternoon, with shares of Nvidia and other chipmakers easing, while investors braced for more inflation data on Thursday.
An index of semiconductors (.SOX), opens new tab was down 2.2%, while Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab fell 1.7%, after recent strong gains. The index is up roughly 17% for the year to date.
Investors are looking ahead to a GTC developer conference that runs from March 18-21 and any announcements related to artificial intelligence.
Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab fell 3.3%. Bloomberg reported that the Pentagon had pulled out of a plan to spend as much as $2.5 billion on a chip grant to the company.
February U.S. producer price data due on Thursday could offer further insight into inflation ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting.
"The last reading actually helped to underscore the hotter inflation trend. So this is going to be important," said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina.
While the U.S. central bank is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged during its meeting, traders see a 65% chance of the first rate cut coming in June, the CME FedWatch Tool showed.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), opens new tab rose 86.34 points, or 0.22%, to 39,091.83. The S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab lost 1.8 points, or 0.03%, at 5,173.47 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), opens new tab dropped 42.64 points, or 0.26%, to 16,223.00.
Tuesday's slightly hot consumer price data failed to dampen hopes of rate cuts in the coming months.
Among other declining shares, Dollar Tree (DLTR.O), opens new tab slumped 14.3% after the discount store chain said it would close nearly 1,000 stores and posted a net loss in the previous quarter, hurt by an over-$1 billion goodwill impairment charge.
McDonald's (MCD.N), opens new tab shares fell 3.4% after its chief financial officer said the fast-food giant's international sales could fall sequentially in the current quarter, pressured by the conflict in the Middle East and demand weakness in China.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 1.96-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.25-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 57 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 85 new highs and 92 new lows.
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Additional reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Richard Chang
