U.S. stock indexes edged lower in morning trading Thursday, pulling back slightly from the market's latest record highs. Losses in health care, industrial and other sectors were outweighing gains by phone and technology companies. Energy stocks also fell as crude oil prices declined.
KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 5 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,797 as of 11:32 a.m. Eastern Time. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 91 points, or 0.4 percent, to 26,023. The Nasdaq lost 5 points, or 0.1 percent, to 7,292. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks gave up 6 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,580. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit record highs on Wednesday.
THE QUOTE: The market's dip from its latest highs represents "just a little setback," said Craig Callahan, chief investment officer at ICON Advisers. "We're still bullish and expect the market to move higher over the next year."
UNDER THE WEATHER: Health care stocks were down in early trading. Biogen slid $5.94, or 1.7 percent, to $338.93.
ROUGH QUARTER: Alcoa tumbled 8.1 percent after the company reported a wider loss in the fourth quarter. Alcoa said it will freeze its pension and move some employees to a defined contribution retirement plan starting in 2021 as it looks to cut costs. The stock lost $4.62 to $52.37.
MIXED RESULTS: Banks were moving after several of them reported quarterly results. Morgan Stanley rose after its latest earnings beat Wall Street's expectations. The stock added 7 cents to $55.42. Bank of NY Mellon and KeyCorp were trading lower after their latest quarterly snapshots. Bank of NY Mellon lost $2.97, or 5.1 percent, to $54.92, while KeyCorp lost 53 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $20.73.
RESILIENT TECH: Technology stocks, one of the biggest gainers this year, continued to notch gains. Advanced Micro Devices picked up 47 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $12.66.
CHECKING IN: La Quinta rose 3.3 percent after Wyndham Worldwide agreed to buy its hotel franchise and management business. Shares in La Quinta added 65 cents to $20.10. Wyndham gained $5.90, or 5 percent, to $123.03.
ENERGY: Benchmark crude rose fell 15 cents to $63.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, slid 4 cents to $69.34 a barrel.
The decline in oil prices weighed on some energy sector stocks. Kinder Morgan slid 48 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $19.10.
BOND YIELDS: Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.60 percent from 2.59 percent late Wednesday.
CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 110.98 yen from 111.13 yen on Wednesday. The euro rose to $1.2238 from $1.2235.
BITCOIN: The price of bitcoin was moving higher after slumping earlier for much of this week. The digital currency was up 4.8 percent to $11,670, according to the tracking site CoinDesk. Bitcoin futures on the Cboe Futures Exchange rose 8.4 percent to $11,730. The futures allow investors to make bets on the future price of bitcoin.
MARKETS OVERSEAS: Major stock indexes in Europe were mixed. Germany's DAX rose 0.6 percent, while France's CAC 40 edged 0.2 percent lower. Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.4 percent. In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 finished 0.4 percent lower. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.4 percent after China reported 6.9 percent economic growth in 2017, faster than expected. South Korea's Kospi inched up less than 0.1 percent.