NEW YORK, April 12 — Wall Street stocks pulled back from records early today at the start of a heavy week of economic data and quarterly earnings results.

After ending at records Friday, both the Dow and S&P 500 retreated early today. Key data releases this week include retail sales and consumer prices for March, which follow last week’s producer price data which shows early signs of inflation pressures.

The calendar also includes a trove of earnings from large banks and a handful of other companies. Optimism about earnings growth in the wake of massive US fiscal support has propelled stocks so far in 2021.

But today’s early weakness suggests "underlying concerns that bullish sentiment is a bit too complacent,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.1 per cent at 33,768.08.

The broad-based S&P 500 also fell 0.1 per cent to 4,125.63, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.4 per cent to 13,846.42.

Among individual companies, Nuance Communications surged 17 per cent after it agreed to be acquired by Microsoft for US$19.7 billion (RM81.4 billion). The deal represents "the latest step in Microsoft’s industry-specific cloud strategy,” Microsoft said.

Shares of Microsoft slipped 0.3 per cent. — AFP