(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks retreated after the Nasdaq Composite Index closed above 5,000 for the first time in 15 years, as auto and health-care companies slid.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 0.6 percent to 2,105.78 at 9:51 a.m. in New York, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 84.63 points, or 0.5 percent, to 18,204.00. Both gauges closed at records Monday. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.6 percent.
"We've had some fantastic gains recently putting stocks at or near all-time highs so the markets are due for a little bit of consolidation," Kevin Caron, a market strategist and portfolio manager who helps oversee $ 170 billion at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in Florham Park, New Jersey, said by phone. "There's not a lot to move the market so perhaps this is some momentum carrying the market a little bit."
The Nasdaq Composite is 1.4 percent from a record reached in 2000. It has taken two bull markets and more than 4,500 days for the Nasdaq to get close to making up all the ground lost in the dot-com collapse. The index surged 7.1 percent in February, its best month since 2012.
The S&P 500 rose to fresh records four times in February, while the Dow average climbed 5.6 percent for its best month since January 2013. The index also topped its record from December for the first time in 2015.
Economic reports this week may give clues on when the Federal Reserve may increase its benchmark interest rate. Data may show factory orders rose in January after slipping the previous month, while payrolls climbed in February as the unemployment rate fell, economists forecast.
Investors are also awaiting details of the European Central B's debt-purchase program on Thursday. ECB President Mario Draghi in January announced a 1.1 trillion-euro ($ 1.2 trillion) quantitative-easing plan to counter slowing growth and the threat of deflation.
"This week is very much about the ECB and the jobs report," said Witold Bahrke, an asset-allocation strategist at Nomura International Plc in London. "We had a very strong run in the recent week. It's only natural that people will step a bit more into the sidelines, especially when you're heading into these big events at the end of the week when we could see larger moves."
Costco Wholesale Corp. and Staples Inc. are among S&P 500 companies reporting later this week. Some 98 percent of companies have released earnings, with 74 percent of those beating projections and 56 percent topping sales estimates.
Analysts predict profit at S&P 500 companies will drop 4.9 percent in the current quarter after a 4.6 percent increase in the final three months of 2014, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
To contact the reporter on this story: Inyoung Hwang in London at ihwang7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecile Vannucci at cvannucci1@bloomberg.net; Jeff Sutherland at jsutherlan13@bloomberg.net John Shipman
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