US stocks sagged early Monday, retreating from record highs on the second-to-last trading day of what has been a banner year for Wall Street.
In light holiday trade, investors were cheered by reporting that a top Chinese trade official was due to travel to Washington to sign a partial trade agreement, de-escalating the two nations' bitter trade conflict.
Ten minutes into the day's trading session, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3 per cent at 28,549.23.
Meanwhile, the broader S&P 500 was down 0.4 per cent at 3,228.54, and the Nasdaq had lost 0.6 per cent at 8,955.39.
The small declines did not undo strong rally of recent weeks. The S&P 500 has closed at records in nine of the last 11 trading sessions.
Analyst Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com said the S&P had risen 4.2 per cent in the last five weeks, "a terrific turn in a terrific quarter (+8.8 per cent) that is ending a terrific year."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content