NEW YORK: US stocks Friday closed slightly lower as the market paused after a torrid multi-day rally that repeatedly set new records.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost a scant 1.47 (0.01 percent) at 16,478.41, while the S&P 500 gave up 0.62 (0.03 percent) at 1,841.40.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 10.59 (0.25 percent) to 4,156.59.
Friday's retreat ended a streak of six straight record-setting closes for the Dow and four straight for the S&P 500.
Major stock indices have risen more than 25 percent in 2013, with major gains posted since the US Federal Reserve announced December 18 that it plans to scale back its stimulus program because of the improving economy.
"From a technical perspective, the market is a little bit overbought, it needs to take a rest," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital.
Social-networking company Twitter, which soared earlier in the week, fell 13 percent after Macquarie downgraded the company, saying the recent surge in valuation was not justified by fundamentals.
Other hot technology stocks also declined, including Facebook (-4.0 percent), Netflix (-2.5 percent), Priceline (-1.6 percent) and Tesla Motors (-2.8 percent).
Retail giant Target fell 0.5 percent after it said hackers obtained "strongly encrypted" debit-card data in a recent security breach. But Target said it is "confident" hackers could not have obtained PIN numbers because of its encryption system.
WPCS, which works in wireless communication, engineering and Bitcoin trading, jumped 67.6 percent after announcing a test version of a Windows-based Bitcoin trading platform was available for public use.
General Motors dipped 1.4 percent after a Chinese quality regulator said Shanghai GM, a joint venture with China's SAIC Motor, will recall more than 1.46 million Buick and Chevrolet cars due to defective fuel-pump brackets.
Separately, the Chinese quality regulator said Changan Ford Automobile, joint venture set up by Ford and Chinese partner Changan Automobile, will recall more than 80,000 Kuga sport utility vehicles in China due to a problem in the steering mechanism. Ford declined 0.2 percent.
Sprint jumped 8.3 percent on speculation it could soon merge with T-Mobile. T-Mobile rose 1.2 percent.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year bond rose to 3.01 percent from 2.99 percent Thursday, while the 30-year increased to 3.94 percent from 3.92 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
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