NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks treaded water early Monday, consolidating the prior week’s gains ahead of key inflation data and a European Central Bank decision.

Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished last week at record highs, extending a post-election equity market rally propelled by optimism over Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and relief over the swiftly resolved US presidential election.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was unchanged at 44,637.92.

Wall Street Week Ahead: Inflation report poses test for stocks rally as Fed meeting looms

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.1 percent to 6,081.56, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also shed 0.1 percent to 19,848.53.

Markets last week shrugged off political upheaval in South Korea and France. Monday’s early trading also pointed to no major reaction to the toppling of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

Among individual companies, Nvidia fell 2.5 percent following a Bloomberg report that China is investigating the chip company for possible anti-monopoly actions.

Interpublic Group surged 9.7 percent after reaching an all-stock agreement to be acquired by fellow advertising firm Omnicom.

The companies said combining staffs and technology platforms would better position them to compete as marketers. Omnicom fell 6.6 percent.

Dow Chemical rose 2.5 percent after announcing that a fund managed by Macquarie Asset Management would acquire a 40 percent stake in some US Gulf Coast assets.

This week’s calendar includes US consumer price index data for November and an ECB meeting expected to result in an interest rate cut.