NEW YORK, Feb 6 — Wall Street stocks paused near records early today as a three-day rally showed signs of fading while markets continued to monitor the coronavirus outbreak in China.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both smashed records yesterday, betting that the economic hit from the epidemic will not be lasting even as some analysts warned of potential market volatility due to the outbreak. 

Today, China announced it would halve tariffs on US$75 billion (RM309.1 billion) worth of US imports as part of the trade truce with Washington signed last month, a concrete sign of progress on the deal.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox Business Network he expects China to fulfill its commitments under the accord to buy US$200 billion US farm products and other goods, saying sales will not be derailed by the virus.

About 25 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down a hair at 29,278.08.

The broad-based S&P 500 edged up 0.1 per cent to 3,338.60, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.2 per cent to 9,529.98.

Twitter surged 15 per cent as it reported lower profits, but topped US$1 billion in revenues, adding millions of new users in the fourth quarter.

Estee Lauder climbed 3.6 per cent after reporting better-than-expected quarterly profits. But the cosmetics giant cut its annual forecast, citing a hit from the coronavirus. — AFP