Wall Street backs off record highs on profit-taking

U.S. stock indices fell on Wednesday, heading for the second loss in eleven days on profit-taking after setting fresh record highs.
 
As of 14:53 GMT, Dow Jones shed 22.26 points, or 0.11% to 20,720.74, while Standard and Poor's 500 fell 5.32 points, or 0.22% to 2,360.06. NASDAQ Composite lost 16.58 points, or 0.25% to 5,849.37.
 
Standard and Poor's 500 rose 0.6% yesterday, hitting a fresh record high at 2,366.71, buoyed by strong gains from the energy sector after crude prices rose to multi-week highs.
 
Investors await later housing data, with existing home sales expected to rise to 5.554 million units in January from 5.49M in December.
 
Markets also await the Federal Reserve's minutes of the January 31-meeting, at which policymakers kept interest rates unchanged at between 0.50% and 0.75%.
 
The minutes could contain new clues about the timing of new rate hikes this year, with one expected in the next few months after Fed Chair Janet Yellen's warning in her Congress testimony of delaying tightening the policy and of the the economic risks that might result from that.