STORY: U.S. stocks closed essentially unchanged on Monday, ahead of crucial inflation data and the kick-off of first-quarter earnings season.

The Dow and S&P 500 dipped marginally, while the Nasdaq ended nominally higher.

All three were held in check by the highest benchmark U.S. Treasury yields since November in the wake of Friday's blowout jobs report.

That report heightened chances that the Federal Reserve could delay implementing its first interest rate cut beyond June, which some investors had still been expecting.

But not Adam Coons, chief portfolio manager at Winthrop Capital Management.

“We see no chance of a rate cut in June. And to be honest with you, we were really modeling one rate cut this year, and even that’s starting to dimmish. And if they (the Federal Reserve) did cut rates, it would be at the end of the year, really just forecasting to the market that we’re gonna start cutting rates in 2025. But right now we just don’t see the data to support rate cuts in 2024.”

On Wednesday, the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index report is expected to show inflation cooled slightly in March.

Among individual movers, Tesla rose nearly 5% after CEO Elon Musk said the company would unveil its self-driving Robotaxi on Aug. 8th.

Cryptocurrency-related stocks also outperformed, tracking rising bitcoin prices. Exchange operator Coinbase Global rose more than 6.5%; software firm MicroStrategy climbed 5%.

First-quarter earnings season officially kicks off on Friday with reports from major U.S. banks JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.