(Reuters) - U.S. stocks retreated from record highs on Wednesday, halting a rally that has been fueled by signs of progress in trade talks between Washington and Beijing and a largely upbeat corporate earnings season.
Losses in shares of Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Facebook Inc (FB.O) weighed the most on the benchmark index and the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 energy sector .SPNY fell 0.39% and was the biggest decliner as oil prices fell due to a build up in U.S. crude stocks and weak euro zone economic figures.
“There is no game changing catalyst on the agenda today that we could see moving these markets distinctively higher,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.
Investor focus remained on further signs of progress on U.S.-China trade relations, with latest reports saying the two sides were still working out the details of a “phase one” deal, which could be signed later this month.
Market players are also closely tracking data to assess the fallout of the trade war on the domestic economy. A fresh crop of indicators this week has been mixed, with the ISM services index showing a better-than-expected reading, but nonfarm productivity falling.
The third-quarter earnings season continues to impress, with the bulk of S&P 500 companies besting analysts’ profit expectations.
To some extent, however, those figures reflect significantly lowered expectations of analysts who had forecast the first earnings drop since late 2016, while doubts still linger about the market’s ability to rally much further this year.
At 10:12 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
