Major US stocks fell, but only slightly, as investors held back on the move ahead of trade talks between the US and China later this week.

Recent media reports have heightened doubts about the possibility of a breakthrough in negotiations between the two largest economies in the world. Over the weekend, Bloomberg reported that China is increasingly reluctant to agree to a wide trade deal with the United States and will not offer options for reforming China's industrial policy or government subsidies. This proposal would remove one of the main requirements of the Trump administration.

The White House today confirmed that US-Chinese talks will resume on Thursday with the participation of Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Liu He, US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. The parties will discuss six issues, including forced technology transfer, intellectual property rights, services, non-tariff barriers, and agriculture and law enforcement.

Meanwhile, Director of the White House National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, said in an interview with Fox Business that he did not want to predict the outcome of negotiations between the US and China. He also said that the issue of removing Chinese companies from the registers of US exchanges in the Trump administration is not discussed.

Markets also analyzed comments by Federal Reserve Bank President Minneapolis Neil Kashkari, who said the economy faces new risks and is happy that the Fed is cutting interest rates. He also added that he did not yet know how much more to reduce the rate. According to the FedWatch CME Group tool, traders see a 73.2% chance of lowering rates at the Fed meeting at the end of this month, compared with 39.6% a week ago.

Most of the DOW components completed trading in the red (22 of 30). Outsider turned out to be the shares of The Coca-Cola Co. (KO; -1.38%). The biggest gainers were UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH; + 0.81%).

All S&P sectors recorded a decline. The conglomerate sector showed the largest decrease (-0.7%).

At the time of closing:

Index

Dow 26,478.02 -95.70 -0.36%

S&P 500 2,938.79 -13.22 -0.45%

Nasdaq 100 7,956.29  -26.18 -0.33%