Wall Street fell from record highs, while Treasuries rose, as investors locked in some profits from the post-US-election rally.
In 1.11pm trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2 per cent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.3 per cent. In 12.56pm trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 0.2 per cent.
"US stocks have soared since the election," Adam Sarhan, chief executive at 50 Park Investments, told Reuters. "At this point, it would be perfectly normal to see the market pull back a bit to digest the very strong move."
"Technically, the market is very overbought and just about everyone out there, including the strongest bulls, want to see a nice orderly consolidation," Sarhan noted.
The Dow fell as slides in shares of Nike and those of American Express, down 1.2 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively, outweighed gains in Verizon Communications and those of IBM, up 0.8 per cent each respectively.