Wall Street dips; Dow poised to break 10-day record run

By Chuck Mikolajczak

(Reuters) - The Dow was on track to break its 10-day record-setting streak on Friday, as banks weighed and investors turned cautious after recent comments from the Trump administration indicated its pro-growth policies may have a longer path to implementation.

Major Wall Street indexes have rallied to record levels since the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, buoyed by promises of tax reforms, reduced regulations and increased infrastructure spending.

But with scant details so far on Trump's plans, including one announced on Thursday to bring millions of jobs back to the United States, markets have been mired in a tight daily trading range. The benchmark S&P 500 index has not registered a move of at least 1 percent in either direction since Dec. 7.

 

"Until you have some clarity out of the administration, hopefully that comes in 2017, but if it gets pushed out further then investors may lose a little bit of patience," said Brant Houston, managing director at Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management in Denver.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that any policy steps would probably have only a limited impact this year. Investors will look for more clarity on Trump's plan on Tuesday, when he addresses a joint session of Congress.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> fell 54.32 points, or 0.26 percent, to 20,756, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 4.74 points, or 0.20 percent, to 2,359.07 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 8.78 points, or 0.15 percent, to 5,826.73.

Financials <.SPSY>, the best performing of the 11 major S&P sectors since the election, weighed on both the Dow and S&P 500 with a decline of 1.2 percent as Treasury yields weakened. Also dragging the group lower was a 1.6 percent decline in Goldman Sachs to $247.27 after Berenberg cut its rating on the stock to "sell."

The Dow was on track to snap a 10-session winning streak, its longest since 2013, as well as a 10-day run of setting record highs, the longest since 1987.

The energy sector <.SPNY>, down 1.1 percent, tracked a decline in oil prices as worries about rising U.S. supplies outweighed OPEC pledges to boost compliance with output curbs.

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise fell 7.1 percent to $22.91 after the company cut its full-year profit forecast.

J.C. Penney fell 3.9 percent to $6.59 after the department store operator reported a bigger-than-expected drop in same-store sales for the holiday quarter.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.27-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.40-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 33 new 52-week highs and 1 new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 75 new highs and 48 new lows.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)