NEW YORK : US stock markets closed lower on Thursday after earlier notching up intra-day record highs as investors opted to cash in some profits, traders said.
The markets saw volatile action as investors were buffeted with some upbeat corporate news as retail titan Wal-Mart Stores., Inc hiked its profit forecasts, but as an industry survey showed home foreclosures still running at high levels.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 63.57 points (0.45 percent) to close at 14,015.12, after striking an all-time intra-day high of 14,198.10.
The broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 also made a run at a new record but ended 8.06 points (0.52 percent) lower at 1,554.41.
Technology stocks took a battering as the Nasdaq lost a hefty 39.41 points (1.40 percent) to 2,772.20.
Traders said there was no one event that drove the markets lower in afternoon deal-making, but said it appeared that some investors had wanted to take advantage of the market's gains to net some lucrative profits.
"Following a sharp early rally, the market stumbled badly today. After climbing more than one hundred points to new record highs, the Dow did an about face in the last two hours on profit taking," said Al Goldman, a chief market strategist at AG Edwards.
<----------- Profit taking? Hopefully Asia markets are not relying on US market so much... else it will be a sea of red today.
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