U.S. equities and stock exchange traded funds slipped Thursday as traders seemed to engage in the time-honored tradition of taking profits after a string of record gains over the past two weeks.
The S&P 500 Index, along with related funds including the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY), iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: IVV) and Vanguard 500 Index (NYSEArca: VOO), were 0.4% lower Thursday.
“It seems like after yesterday’s surge, there is no real news out there this morning and it is almost like the market’s simply taking a breather,” Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial, told Reuters.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq on Wednesday experienced their best trading session since the November election after President Donald Trump provided a more measured tone in his speech to Congress and financials rallied on rising interest rate expectations.
Nevertheless, investors may have grown wary of the high valuations after the record-breaking streak the equities markets enjoyed over the past few weeks, opting to trim some of their positions to lock in gains.