NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks were under pressure early Tuesday after notching all-time records in the prior session as investors weighed talk of an “overbought” market.
Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished at record highs on Monday, the latest in a string of post-election surges.
“The market is increasingly becoming overbought,” said Quincy Krosby of LPL Financial.
“When you have a scenario like that, typically you will see a pullback,” Krosby said, adding that an early-December retreat could create room for gains later in the month.
US stocks mostly up after higher Black Friday sales
About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2 percent at 44,696.76.
The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.1 percent to 6,041.84, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was flat at 19,407.61.
Stocks in recent days have mostly churned higher, shrugging off valuation concerns.
“The S&P 500 has closed higher in nine of the last 10 sessions, and we would argue that the belief the market is due for a consolidation period was present at the start of each of those sessions,” Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare said in a note.
“That expectation, ironically, has served as a catalyst for the ongoing gains.”
Among individual companies AT&T jumped 4.8 percent as it announced $40 billion in shareholder give-backs at an investor day in which it projected revenue and operating earnings growth over the next three years.
United States Steel sank 7.8 percent after President-elect Donald Trump reiterated a pledge to block a takeover of the company by Japan’s Nippon Steel.