US equity markets slipped in muted trading, giving up modest early gains as investors pondered the news that JPMorgan Chase & Co (up +2.14%) had agreed to buy the bulk of embattled of Californian lender First Republic Bank - Dow eased -46-points or -0.14%, unwinding an earlier rally of as much as +160-points. The broader S&P500 dipped -0.04%, with Energy (down -1.26%) and Consumer Discretionary (-1.06%) leading seven of the eleven primary sectors lower. Healthcare (up +0.59%) and Industrials (+0.55%) were the leading primary sector performers overnight. The Nasdaq slipped -0.11% to 12,212.60, with Amazon.com Inc down -3.22% and extending its two day slide to over >7% since the release of the e-commerce and cloud-computing giant’s first quarter result. However, chipmaker Nvidia Corp gained +4.18%. The technology-centric index has been in a bear market for 138 trading days, and needed to close above >12,255.95 to exit bear-market territory, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 eked out a +0.01% gain.