NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are drifting near their record heights on Monday, ahead of a week where profit reports from the nation’s biggest retailers could give a hint about how shoppers are dealing with high inflation and a slowing job market. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1 percent but remains near its all-time high set Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 209 points, or 0.4 percent, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2 percent higher. Wall Street has run to records in large part because profits are booming for U.S. companies. Those in the S&P 500 index are on track to deliver growth of roughly 50 percent for earnings per share in the spring from a year earlier, according to FactSet. That’s much better than analysts expected and would be the best since five years ago, when the economy was erupting out of the chasm created by the COVID pandemic. Nearly all the companies in the S&P 500 have turned in their profit reports for the spring. Still to come are big retailers, including reports this week from Home Depot, Target and Walmart. They’re facing pressure