S&P, Nasdaq lose ground after touching record highs

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

REUTERS - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq lost ground on Monday after touching record highs as investors looked for fresh catalysts following centrist Emmanuel Macron's widely expected victory in the French presidential election.

Currency markets were in sharp focus, with the euro hitting a six-month high against the dollar after Macron comfortably defeated far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen who had threatened to take France out of the European Union.

"We're sitting here waiting for additional information to digest for the balance of this week. But we remain largely constructive of the equity market and view that the path of least resistance is higher," said Bill Northey, chief investment officer at Private Client Group of U.S. Bank.

At 12:34 p.m. ET (1634 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 4.61 points, or 0.02 percent, at 21,002.33.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 8.40 points, or 0.14 percent, at 6,092.36, after touching a record high of 6,106.11.

The S&P 500 was down 2.79 points, or 0.11 percent, at 2,396.5, reversing from an all-time high of 2,401.36

The index has not moved more than 0.4 percent in the past 10 trading days, despite a flurry of quarterly earnings.

Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with energy rising the most by 0.35 percent on the back of higher oil prices.

The CBOE Volatility index, also known as Wall Street's "fear gauge", dropped to its lowest in more than 10 years as the risk-off sentiment, which had gripped the market ahead of the French vote, eased.

Gold dropped and so did utilities and other defensive plays, which were the top losers among S&P 500 sectors.

Shares of Kate Spade rose 8.2 percent to $18.36 after bigger rival Coach Inc said it would buy the company for $2.4 billion. Coach shares rose 5.2 percent.

Straight Path surged more than 30 percent to $210.55 after an unnamed telecommunications company raised its offer to buy the wireless spectrum holder for about $3.1 billion, trumping a bid by AT&T. Sources told Reuters that the bidder was Verizon.

Tyson Foods was the biggest S&P loser, down nearly 6 percent after the meat processor reported a slump in quarterly profit.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,873 to 963. On the Nasdaq, 1,736 issues fell and 1,012 advanced.

The S&P 500 index showed 39 52-week highs and four lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 95 highs and 44 lows.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)