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."
"With such a terrific move, there is a burgeoning sense that the stock market is going to endure a stretch soon that is less terrific as that big run invites some selling/rebalancing efforts," he wrote.
The South China Morning Post reported Monday that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He was due to travel to Washington this week to sign the "Phase 1" deal announced this month. Neither side had publicly confirmed the news, however.
Advance data from the Commerce Department also showed a November dip in the soaring US deficit in goods trade, pointing to further easing in the US trade gap, which could support GDP growth in the fourth quarter.
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