US stocks see cautious moves, DOW dips from record high

Wall Street saw recent strength leading to major US indexes turning into a mixed performance in last session. Dow showed a notable pullback whereas Nasdaq managed to end in positive terrain. The Dow slid 344.31 points (0.8%) to 42,931.60 and the S&P 500 dipped 10.69 points (0.2%) to 5,853.98 but the Nasdaq rose 50.45 points (0.3%) to 18,540.01.

The pullback by the Dow partly reflected significant declines by American Express (AXP), Merck (MRK) and Travelers (TRV). The blue chip index gave back ground after reaching a record closing high last Friday, as some traders cashed in on the recent strength.

Overall trading activity was relatively subdued, as traders looked ahead to the release of a slew of corporate earnings news from big-name companies. 3M (MMM), General Motors (GM), Verizon (VZ), Boeing (BA), Coca-Cola (KO), IBM Corp. (IBM), Tesla (TSLA) and UPS (UPS) are among the companies due to report their quarterly results this week.

Durable goods, new and existing home sales are all likely to attract attention along with Federal Reserve's Beige Book.
The Conference Board released a report this morning showing its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators fell by more than expected in the month of September. The leading economic index slid by 0.5% in September after falling by a revised 0.3% in August.

Housing stocks saw substantial weakness with the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index plunging by 3% after ending last Friday's trading at a record closing high. Considerable weakness was also visible among commercial real estate stocks, as reflected by the 2% slumped by the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index. Telecom, banking and pharmaceutical stocks also saw significant weakness, while airline stocks showed a strong move to the upside.

Asia-Pacific stocks turned in a mixed performance, Japan's Nikkei 225 Index edged down by 0.1% while China's Shanghai Composite Index rose by 0.2%.
The major European markets have all moved to the downside. U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.5%, German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both slumped by 1%.

In the bond market, treasuries moved sharply lower over the course of the session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, surged 10.9 bps to a two-month closing high of 4.18%.

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