Wall Street's major indices ended Monday in mixed order: the Dow Jones gave up 0.2% to 39431, while the S&P500 ended just below its equilibrium at just over 5221, but the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3% to 16388.

Many investors preferred to sit on the sidelines on the eve of the CPI figures, and a certain feverishness was evident in the rather unexpected upward thrust of the CBOE's VIX volatility index.

"The fact that the VIX is rising again, and that defensive stocks are in demand, betrays a certain feeling of anxiety two days ahead of the CPI, which could well surprise on the upside", as one trader pointed out.

We should be careful: while there is increasing talk of the threat of 'stagflation', current price levels do not at all take into account the possibility of such a scenario", he added.

On the value side, Apple gained 1.8% on press reports of a forthcoming agreement with OpenAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) company behind the ChatGPT conversational robot.

Merck shed 0.6% following the discontinuation of a Phase 3 clinical trial combining its flagship immunotherapy Keytruda with its new molecule vibostolimab in the treatment of high-risk stage 2 to 4 melanoma.

No indicators were on the session's agenda, but the week promises to be a busy one with, in addition to inflation, data such as retail sales and industrial production, as well as quarterly reports from Home Depot, Cisco and Walmart.

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