Shares turned mixed in afternoon trading on Wall Street on Monday as communications firms slipped and tempered gains from tech companies.

The S&P 500 fell 0.1% at 1:05 p.m. EST after rising 0.6% earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 34 points, or 0.1%, to 34,716 and the Nasdaq also rose 0.1%.

The price of US crude oil rose 2.4% to just over $ 81 a barrel.

Trading in the bonds was closed for the Columbus Day holidays.

Investors are eagerly awaiting the start of corporate results this week. Analysts said the latest round of corporate results could help give the market more direction after several turbulent weeks. Stocks have hovered between gains and losses as investors try to better gauge the direction of the economic recovery for the remainder of the year.

Banks will be among the first large companies to release their latest financial results and give investors a better look at how companies are doing amid concerns over the lingering virus pandemic and rising inflation.

JPMorgan Chase reports its results on Wednesday. Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup will release their results on Thursday.

Delta Air Lines will release its latest results on Wednesday. The airline industry is still struggling to recover from the pandemic shutdowns that began 18 months ago. Investors will be watching the industry’s results closely to see what impact the summer spate of COVID-19 cases has had on the industry.

Wall Street faced a calm day of corporate reporting ahead of results. Southwest Airlines fell 2.9% after facing hundreds of flight cancellations over the weekend. Toymaker Hasbro fell 1.2% after announcing CEO Brian D. Goldner was taking medical leave.

Investors are also eagerly awaiting this week’s economic data which may shed more light on the development of inflation. The Ministry of Labor will release its consumer price index on Wednesday and its producer price index on Thursday. The reports detail the pressure of inflation on consumers and businesses.

Companies across a wide range of industries have warned investors that supply chain issues and higher raw material costs could hurt their bottom line for the rest of the year. Wall Street is watching closely whether these higher costs and the resulting higher commodity prices hurt consumer spending, which is a key engine of economic growth.

Inflation will likely remain the dominant theme in the markets until 2021 and 2022, said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors. The next consumer price index data on Wednesday will likely be hotter than Wall Street expects, he added.

“As soon as you start making money, you have this IPC bomb that might go off,” he said. “We have a demand problem and a supply problem; there are too many dollars chasing too few goods.