Wall St pulls back from records; banks dip

Dow and S&P 500 closed yesterday at record highs for a fifth straight session

US stocks opened lower on Wednesday, a day after the Dow and S&P 500 closed at record highs for a fifth straight session.

Financial companies lost ground after global regulators fined five major banks - including UBS AG, HSBC Holdings Plc and Citigroup Inc - $3.4 billion for failing to stop their traders from trying to manipulate the foreign exchange market.

Citigroup shares dipped 0.5 percent to $53.56 while the S&P financial index lost 0.3 percent.

"The imposition of fines by the watchdog basically weighed on European bank stocks, and as a result the market is following suit here," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

"It's a market that could certainly use a little bit of a rest and a pullback, and that would be healthy from a technical aspect."

Tuesday's record close for the S&P 500 marked its 40th new closing high for the year, versus 45 in 2013. The last time the index closed at a record high for five straight days was in May 2013, with the next longest streak being an 8-day run in June 1997. The Dow is on a 6-session winning streak, its longest run since June.

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. For the year so far, the index is up more than 10 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 69.82 points, or 0.4 percent, to 17,545.08, the S&P 500 lost 5.88 points, or 0.29 percent, to 2,033.8 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 9.10 points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,651.46.

As earnings season draws to a close, Thomson Reuters data through Tuesday morning showed that of 449 companies in the S&P 500 reporting, 74.6 percent beat expectations, above the 63 percent average beat rate since 1994 and 67 percent for the past four quarters. Earnings overall were expected to grow 10 percent over the year-ago period.

Macy's Inc helped lead retailers to a slight gain, up 2.2 percent to $59.90 after it posted third-quarter earnings and revised its full-year outlook. The S&P retail index edged up 0.1 percent. Cisco Systems is scheduled to report earnings after the close.

In a light day for economic data, a report on wholesale inventory for September is due at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT). Expectations call for a 0.2 percent rise versus the 0.7 percent increase in the prior month.

Susquehanna Bancshares Inc surged 33.1 percent to $13.18 after the company agreed to be acquired by BB&T Corp for about $2.5 billion. BB&T shares lost 1.7 percent to $37.69.