While you were sleeping: Wall St retreats from record highs

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Photo / AP

The US dollar rose, while Treasuries fell after the Federal Reserve signalled it plans another interest rate increase this year and said, as it had flagged previously, that it will begin paring its balance sheet in October.

Wall Street was mixed, with both the Dow and S&P 500 retreating from touching record highs earlier in the day.

"There's nothing in the official release that's too earth shattering, but when it's in black and white, it might shock a few people," Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Leuthold Group, told Bloomberg. "The fact that we have the official word on balance sheet reduction, people now have to face the fact that it's actually happening."

The Federal Open Market Committee kept the target range for its key interest rate unchanged and maintained its forecast for three rate hikes in 2018.

"Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria have devastated many communities, inflicting severe hardship," the Fed said in a statement.

"Storm-related disruptions and rebuilding will affect economic activity in the near term, but past experience suggests that the storms are unlikely to materially alter the course of the national economy over the medium term."

In 3.22pm trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a 0.02 per cent gain. However, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.27 per cent. In 3.07pm trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 0.16 per cent.

"If you want to build the case for why this is hawkish, the path you can go down was that they were dismissive of hurricane impacts, basically saying that it's going to inflict hardship but net-net it's going to levy a modest negative impact," Tom Porcelli, chief US economist, RBC Capital Markets, New York, told Reuters.

"Maybe the reality is starting to sink in for the market that they really do want to go in December."

Earlier in the day, the Dow had climbed to a record high of 22,399.33, while the S&P 500 reached a record 2,508.85.

In the Dow advances in shares of Pfizer and those of McDonald's, recently up 1.3 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively, offset declines in shares of Apple and those of 3M, recently down 2.2 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively.

Shares of General Mills sank, trading 6 per cent weaker as of 2.09pm in New York, after the owner of the Cheerios, Betty Crocker, Yoplait and Haagen-Dazs brands posted another drop in quarterly net sales as demand for yoghurts and cereals slid. Net sales were down double-digits in the US Yogurt unit, driven by continued declines for Yoplait Greek and Yoplait Light products, the company said in a statement. Net sales in the US cereal operating unit were down 7 per cent, it said.

"Our number one priority in fiscal 2018 is strengthening our top-line performance," General Mills Chief Executive Officer Jeff Harmening said in the statement.

"We anticipated a slow start to the year on the bottom line, and we continue to expect sequential improvement in profitability in the coming quarters," he noted.

"Looking ahead, we're taking deliberate steps through innovation, brand building, and increased organisational agility to position the company for long-term top- and bottom-line growth, in line with our shareholder return model."

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index inched 0.1 per cent lower from the previous close, while the UK's FTSE 100 Index slipped 0.1 per cent. Germany's DAX Index rose 0.1 per cent, while France's CAC 40 Index also added 0.1 per cent.