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New York - US markets sagged on Monday ahead of the takeoff of first-quarter earnings season, with traders hedging their bets after last week's solid gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 80.61 points at 17 977.04.
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 9.63 points to 2 092.43, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 7.73 points at 4 988.25.
The markets opened higher with the S&P poised to make another run at its all-time record, but sellers took over halfway through the session.
David Levy of Kenjol Capital Management said investors are taking a break to see what happens during the week.
Earnings season gets going on Tuesday with JPMorgan Chase (+0.7%) and Wells Fargo (+0.6%) both reporting.
General Electric, which primed last Friday's market rise with a 10.8% gain on its plan to hive off most of its banking business, reversed course to fall 3.1%, pulling the Dow down.
GE will release its first-quarter earnings report on Friday.
Among tech shares, Facebook's 1.2% rise and Netflix's 4.4% rise limited the Nasdaq Composite's fall. Comcast, though, dropped 1.7%.
Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury slipped to 1.94% from 1.95% on Friday, while the 30-year held steady at 2.58%. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
