Wall Street stocks ended mixed on Tuesday as investors tried to look past downturn worries ahead of this week's inflation data, which will be closely watched for its impact on central bank decisions.

The movements came as the International Monetary Fund trimmed its global growth forecast while a Federal Reserve official urged caution about raising interest rates too aggressively.

The Dow Jones ended 0.3 percent higher at 33,684, while the S&P 500 was flat at 4,108. The Nasdaq slipped 0.4 percent to 12,031.

"We are definitely in a bit of a wait-and-see period for the markets," said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.

With the consumer price index to be released on Wednesday, producer price index due on Thursday and bank earnings on Friday, he added: "There is going to be a lot for the markets to digest."

But at a press briefing in Washington, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stressed that she is not anticipating a downturn in the US economy, even if that remains a risk.

Among individual companies, shares of used car retailer CarMax surged nearly 10 percent after it reported a better quarterly profit than expected. (AFP)