Dow, S&P 500 edge lower after hitting intraday records

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow and S&P 500 inched lower late Tuesday afternoon after both indexes managed to touch fresh intraday records for a fifth straight session in early trading.

Among the S&P 500's biggest percentage decliners, the stock of Juniper Networks fell 4.5 percent, a day after the company's chief executive resigned following a board review of his conduct in a negotiation with a customer.

Shares of Alibaba were down 3.7 percent, retracing recent gains. The e-commerce giant reported more than $9 billion in sales on China's Singles' Day on Tuesday.

The benchmark S&P index had set its 39th new closing high for the year on Monday, versus 45 such highs in 2013. The last time the index closed at a record for four consecutive days was in June, while its last five-day streak was in May 2013.

The S&P 500 has rallied more than 9 percent from a six-month low in October, buoyed by supportive economic data and solid corporate earnings reports. For the year, the index is up over 10 percent.

The market is likely pausing as third-quarter earnings wind down, but the repeated new highs could mean stocks will end the year on a positive note, said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Bolton Global Asset Management in Boston.

"We'll likely see less big up days and less big down days, and I think market will just grind higher."

At 2:50 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average fell 14.96 points, or 0.08 percent, to 17,598.78, the S&P 500 lost 0.61 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,037.65 and the Nasdaq Composite added 2.48 points, or 0.05 percent, to 4,654.09.

Among the day's gainers, D.R. Horton rose 2.5 percent. The largest U.S. homebuilder reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and said orders jumped 38 percent, suggesting an uptick in housing demand.

Activity was light due to the U.S. Veterans Day holiday.

Cable providers remained under pressure for a second straight session after U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that Internet service providers should be regulated more like public utilities. Comcast was down 0.2 percent and among the day's most actively trades shares.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,607 to 1,422, for a 1.13-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,492 issues fell and 1,155 advanced for a 1.29-to-1 ratio.

(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Nick Zieminski)