NEW YORK — U.S. stock indexes drifted lower Tuesday in the runup to the highlight of the week for the market, the latest update on inflation that’s coming on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 dipped 0.3%, a day after pulling back from its latest all-time high. They’re the first back-to-back losses for the index in nearly a month, as momentum slows following a big rally that has it on track for one of its best years of the millennium.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 154 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3%.

Tech titan Oracle dragged on the market and sank 6.7% after reporting growth for the latest quarter that fell just short of analysts’ expectations. It was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500, even though CEO Safra Catz said the company saw record demand related to artificial-intelligence technology for its cloud infrastructure business, which trains generative AI models.

AI has been a big source of growth that’s helped many companies’ stock prices skyrocket. Oracle’s stock had already leaped more than 80% for the year coming into Tuesday, which raised the bar of expectations for its profit report.

In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher ahead of Wednesday’s report on the inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling. Economists expect it to show similar increases as the month before.

Wednesday’s update and a report on Thursday about inflation at the wholesale level will be the final big pieces of data the Federal Reserve will get before its meeting next week, where many investors expect the year’s third cut to interest rates.

The Fed has been easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high since September to take pressure off the slowing jobs market, after bringing inflation nearly down to its 2% target. Lower rates would help give support to the economy, but they could also provide more fuel for inflation.

Expectations for a series of cuts through next year have been a big reason the S&P 500 has set so many records this year.

Trading in the options market suggests traders aren’t expecting a very big move for U.S. stocks following Wednesday’s report, according to strategists at Barclays. But a reading far off expectations in either direction could quickly change that.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.22% from 4.20% late Monday.

Even though the Fed has been cutting its main interest rate, mortgage rates have been more stubborn to stay high and have been volatile since the autumn. That has hampered the housing industry, and homebuilder Toll Brothers’ stock fell 6.9% even though it delivered profit and revenue for the latest quarter that topped analysts’ expectations.