The New York Stock Exchange got off to a lackluster start to the second quarter, with the Dow Jones losing 0.6% to 39567 and the Nasdaq Composite gaining 0.1% to 16397, against a backdrop of mixed signals from the US manufacturing sector.

Indeed, the ISM manufacturing index rose from 47.8 in February to 50.3 in March, just above the 50 mark separating expansion and contraction in the sector's activity, but the S&P Global PMI index eased to 51.9 for last month from 52.2.

Above all, S&P Global pointed to 'a particularly sharp rise in loaded prices for consumer goods, the strongest in 16 months, underlining a likely bumpy road to bringing inflation back below the Fed's 2% target'.

Other data due this week in the US include the PMI and ISM services indices, as well as the ADP private employment report on Wednesday, and above all the official Labor Department employment report on Friday.

'Signals from the labor market remain mixed, with dynamic job creation on the one hand and unemployment on a (slow) upward slope on the other', as Oddo BHF recalled last week.

In other stock news, UPS shed 0.7% despite winning a major contract making it the main supplier of air freight services to the United States Postal Service (USPS), news which hurt its rival FedEx (-3.3%) most of all.

3M plunged by 11.4% following the U.S. Justice Department's green light for the June 2023 agreement between the conglomerate and public water suppliers to settle their dispute over PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances) pollution.

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