US stocks slip for 2nd day after record run

US headed lower for a second day Wednesday after the run that saw new Dow and S&P records and a 15-year high for the Nasdaq on Monday.

An hour into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 158.07 points (0.87 percent) at 18,045.30.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 17.47 (0.83 percent) to 2,090.31, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite dropped 36.28 (0.73 percent) to 4,943.62.

Dull data on hiring and auto sales in February -- though severe weather could have contributed -- underscored the feeling of caution in the market going forward, analysts said.

After Tuesday's pullback, said Thomas O'Hare of Briefing.com, there is an "underlying sense that the market is due for a period of consolidation after its tremendous run in February."

ExxonMobil, which was one of the better performers among sagging blue chips, was off 0.3 percent after announcing a $4.5 billion cut in investment spending for this year due to the plunge in oil prices.

Spending would hold at $34 billion a year through 2017, it said, as it based its planning on a projected price for Brent crude of around $55 a barrel.

Shares of Voya Financial, the insurer and retirement firm previously known as ING US, gained 0.5 percent at $44.30 after former parent ING Group was able to place a block of 32 million shares it is divesting with underwriters at $44.20 a share.

Among leading losers, Dow member Caterpillar was down 2.1 percent and Twitter fell 1.7 percent.

Alibaba was up 1.3 percent at $82.63 after having hit its lowest level since last year's IPO of $80.17 in opening trade.

Bond prices were little-changed. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.11 percent from 2.12 percent Tuesday, while the 30-year held at 2.71 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.