Wall Street closed out another winning month Friday, even as stocks gave back some of their recent gains, pulling the market below its latest all-time highs.
The S&P 500 fell 0.6% a day after climbing to a record high. The benchmark index ended August with a 1.9% gain, its fourth straight month of gains. It’s now up 9.8% so far this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average also came off its own record high, slipping 0.2%, while the Nasdaq composite closed 1.2% lower.
“The reason the market is down today is primarily because we are heading into a long weekend, and a lot of traders don’t like to have a hefty exposure over a long weekend because of the news that could come out and take them by surprise,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.
Mixed economic data may also hav