US Stock Markets Today: S&P 500, Dow Jones Decline As Wall Street Retreats From Record High

The US stock market fell on Tuesday after they began the shortened week higher as investors monitor the progress in trade negotiations. This comes after the broader index hit a record high last Friday and scaled a fresh high on Monday.

The S&P 500, in the early minutes of trading, fell over 0.27%, whereas the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and Dow was down 0.40% and 0.16%, respectively ahead of Fed Chair Powell's speech. The markets will be closed on Friday on account of US Independence Day.

Wall Street surged to all-time highs at the end of a solid June quarter amid hopes the US is moving closer to reaching concrete trade deals with its top partners. Bets the Federal Reserve will resume rate cuts powered the best first half stretch for Treasuries in five years.

The S&P 500 ended 0.5% higher on Monday and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 275 points or 0.6%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5%.

The rising momentum in the last week was on the back of easing inflationary pressure and steady corporate earnings.

In the early minutes of trading, four of the 11 sectoral indices was trading in green. Consumer discretionary and communication services were leading the decline while consumer staples and material sectors were in negative.

“We’ve had a strong quarter, but there’s still too much on the table,” Haris Khurshid, chief investment officer at Karobaar Capital told Bloomberg.

“If the trade talks drag or the tax bill stalls, we’ll see how much conviction these bulls really have,” he added.

Nike Inc., shares were up over 5.96%, in addition Apple Inc., Coca-Cola Co., McDonald's Corp. were amongst the other gainers for the day as they saw a jump of over 1%. On the other hand, Tesla Inc. was down over 7% after US President Donald Trump once again threatened to withdraw subsidies. Visa Inc., Nvidia Corp., Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. and Salesforce Inc. were also amongst the losers.

As the US market opened, spot gold rose 1.35% to $3,347.76 an ounce. Crude oil prices rose, with the Brent trading 0.37% higher at $66.99 per barrel.

The Bloomberg Dollar Index fell 0.3%, with the British Pound rising 0.1% to $1.3747, while the Japanese yen rose 0.7% at 142.95 per dollar.

Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency, fell 1.1% to $106,435.79.