Wall Street struggles to extend record-setting rally, closes mixed

Following yet another positive start to the day, major equity indexes in the U.S. stretched their rally to fresh record highs before losing momentum later in the session. Transportation and technology sectors weighed on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite indexes and forced them to close the day with losses.

United Parcel Service (UPS) shares lost more than 4% after a disappointing outlook report and dragged down FedEx with it as well, pushing the Dow Jones Transport Average to its lowest level in two months.

On the other hand, despite a more than 3% gain seen in Facebook shares, the S&P 500 technology sector .SPLRCT lost 1.2%. After the closing bell today, Amazon, the last one of the high performing technology stocks known as FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) to report its Q2 earnings, announced its revenue at $37.95B (vs. $37.18B expected) and earnings per share (EPS) at $0.4 (vs. $1.42 expected). Intel, another technology company that released its earnings report recently,  beat the estimates with EPS at $0.72 (vs. $0.68 expected) and revenue at $14.8B (vs. $14.4B expected).

"You've got a general feeling a lot of good news is priced into this market and that holds with technology. The problem with momentum stocks, once they start heading in a direction they get there violently and that's what we're seeing today," Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York, told Reuters.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 85 points, or 0.4 percent, to 21,796.55, the S&P 500 dropped 3.63 points, or 0.15%, to 2,470.50 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 59.35 points, or 0.92%, to close at 6,363.39.

Headlines from the U.S. session:

• Trump may veto sanctions and negotiate tougher deal against Russia - Reuters
• US: Top Republicans behind tax plan say border adjustment tax is dead - CNBC
• US Tsy Sec. Mnuchin: Looking at adding currency manipulation provisions into NAFTA
• Fed: still expects to continue the process of raising interest rates - UOB
• US Durable Goods Orders: strong headline and encouraging details - Wells Fargo
• Atlanta Fed: GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth in Q2 is 2.8%
• US: Manufacturing activity expanded moderately - Kansas Fed
• Fed: Next rate hike expected in December - Danske Bank
• US: National Activity Index points to a pickup in economic growth in June - Chicago Fed