US stocks dipped on Tuesday as US-China trade worries pressured technology shares, while the scale of consensus at the Federal Reserve in favor of deeper cuts in interest rates ate into optimism that drove markets to record highs last week.
Apple Inc's results after markets close will paint a clear picture of the impact of trade tensions with China. Shares of the iPhone maker fell 0.81pc, contributing the most to the tech sector's 0.45pc drop.
"Investors are very concerned about how weak Apple's Chinese business will do," said Tony Roth, chief investment officer at Wilmington Trust in Wilmington, Delaware.
As trade talks between the world's two biggest economies resumed on Tuesday, President Donald Trump warned China against trying to wait out his first term in office to finalize a deal.
Market participants are now bracing for what message the Fed will send if it pushes ahead with a well-telegraphed move to ease policy that has driven Wall Street's main indexes to record highs in the past few weeks and contributed to the S&P 500 index's 20pc gain for the year.
With a quarter-percentage-point cut in rates fully priced-in, investors will monitor how Fed Chairman Jerome Powell manages debate about whether the stimulus is necessary and what that says about the attitude of the US central bank to doing more in the months ahead.
"The Fed has a very strong rationale for cutting interest rates that is to stimulate growth and inflation, but policymakers have to resort to justifications to keep the expansions going," Roth said.
Corporate earnings so far have been robust. With half of all S&P 500 companies reporting second-quarter results, about 76pc have topped profit estimates, according to Refinitiv data.
Backing the case further for a reduction in borrowing costs was data from the Commerce Department that showed US consumer spending and prices rose moderately in June, pointing to slower economic growth and benign inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 27.79 points, or 0.1pc, to 27,193.56, and the S&P 500 lost 8.19 points, or 0.27pc, to 3,012.78. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 25.13 points, or 0.3pc, to 8,268.20.
Limiting losses on the blue-chip Dow index was Procter & Gamble Co, which jumped 4.48pc after the consumer goods maker beat estimates for quarterly revenue.
The financials sector fell 0.53pc, hit by a decline in shares of Capital One Financial Corp after the credit-card issuer said information for 106 million people had been compromised.
Bank stocks, which tend to benefit from a rising interest rate environment, dropped 0.32pc.
A 5.42pc tumble in shares of Pfizer Inc weighed the most on the healthcare index. A couple of brokerages downgraded the stock after the drugmaker said on Monday it would spin off its off-patent drugs unit and merge it with Mylan .
Under Armour Inc slid 12.78pc after the sportswear maker cut its full-year revenue forecast for North America, its biggest market.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.24-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.04-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 27 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 39 new highs and 65 new lows.
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