Wall Street pauses after record highs; tech a drag

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were flat on Thursday, pausing after their recent run of record highs, as technology shares dragged and some earnings disappointed.

Shares of Apple , the world's biggest company by market capitalisation, were down 2.5 percent and headed for their worst day in more than two months, as doubts about its double 2017 iPhone release strategy weighed on investors.

There was also profit-taking in the tech sector, said Phil Blancato, head of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management in New York. The technology sector has had a strong run so far this year, gaining more than 30 percent and helping the three major indexes scale record highs. The tech index <.SPLRCT> was down 0.4 percent.

 

Other high-flying stocks - Amazon , Facebook , Alphabet and Netflix - were down as well.

But the S&P 500 was flat in late afternoon trade, off its lows of the day.

"There's not a strong downside case right now to shake up the narrative and get things into a more defensive frame of mind," said Katrina Lamb, head of investment strategy and research at MV Financial, asset manager and wealth manager in Bethesda, Maryland.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> fell 3.37 points, or 0.01 percent, to 23,154.23, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 0.68 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,560.58 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 23.57 points, or 0.36 percent, to 6,600.65.

The day also marked the 30th anniversary of the 1987 Black Monday stock market crash. Most traders see a repeat of the crash as unlikely because of modern trading technology and other changes.

United Airlines tumbled 11.6 percent, weighing on other airlines stocks and the Dow Jones Transport index <.DJT>, after the third largest U.S. carrier's profit fell due to flight cancellations during the hurricane season.

Shares of eBay were down 2.5 percent a day after it reported results.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.15-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.46-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.

(Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski)