US equity indexes were mixed ahead of Wednesday's close as communication services and technology topped sector charts, while producer prices grew at the fastest annual pace in four years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% to 49,707.1, trading off session lows. The Nasdaq jumped 1.3% to 26,435.3, and the S&P 500 climbed 0.7% to 7,452.8 in the final leg of trading. Utilities, financials, real estate, and industrials declined. In a broadly positive tape, communication services, technology, and consumer discretionary were among the top gainers.

Of the top 10 companies with a market capitalization of more than $200 billion, implying a significant sway over indexes, seven were from technology and communication services. Nasdaq's leaders included Marvell Technology (MRVL), Arm (ARM), and Micron Technology (MU). In the S&P 500, ON Semiconductor (ON) and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) were among the biggest outperformers. Nvidia (NVDA) and Cisco (CSCO) were in the top five gainers on the Dow.

In economic news, the US Producer Price Index soared 1.4% month-over-month in April from a 0.7% gain in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The print beat the 0.5% increase expected in a Bloomberg-compiled survey. After excluding food and energy prices, core PPI surged 1.0% from 0.2%, above the 0.3% advance anticipated.

Year-over-year, PPI soared 6.0% in April while core PPI catapulted 5.2%, both above their respective March rates and the strongest readings since December 2022.

A hotter-than-expected PPI, coupled with Tuesday's larger-than-expected rise in the consumer price index, underscores not only the price impact already realized but the "additional inflationary pressures still coming down the pipeline," according to a Stifel note.

US Treasury yields were mostly lower, with the 10-year steady at 4.47% while the two-year slipped 1.5 basis points to 3.98%.