Stocks recoil slightly in shaky week for big tech

Wall Street drifted modestly lower early today ahead of a highly anticipated update on U.S. consumer prices later this week, according to the Associated Press.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrials fell 0.2% before the bell, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.3%.

The Federal Reserve is weighing whether to keep raising interest rates or keep them steady in its effort to get inflation back to 2%. On Wednesday, the U.S. government will offer the latest monthly update on prices consumers are paying across the economy, and the forecast is they were 3.6% higher in August than a year earlier.

It is a big week in the tech sector and in early trading Oracle is down 10% after the software company released a sales forecast late Monday that fell short of expectations.

Google’s antitrust trial opens in federal court early today with the government accusing Google of abusing its position as the world’s dominant search engine and forcing consumers to settle for inferior search results.

Also today, Apple will hold a product launch event for its iPhone 15. The showcase comes with the company experiencing a mild slump that has seen its sales drop from last year in three consecutive quarters — with management signaling another downturn is likely during the current quarter. Apple’s stock is down more than 10% since mid-July.

In other trading Tuesday, benchmark U.S. crude gained 73 cents to $88.02 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 62 cents to $91.26 a barrel.

The U.S. dollar edged up to 147.04 Japanese yen from 146.55 yen.