Wall Street ends day lower as Russia probe and tax talk weigh on sentiment

• US stocks ease off record highs on Monday.
• Investors are staying away from riskier assets as Russia probe heats up.
• Latest talk on tax plan disappoints markets.

After starting the day slightly lower, major equity indexes in the U.S. extended their losses on Monday as the recent political developments forced investors to lean toward safer assets such as the US Treasury bonds.

A Bloomberg report earlier in the session pointed out that the House of Representatives was considering the corporate tax cut to be applied gradually over a 5-year period. Commenting on today's trading action, "a lot of people are looking to that corporate tax cut as a reason for the next leg up in stocks. We are in a market that has just been on an absolute low-volatility, steady climb for quite a while, so you don’t need much of a reason for it to take a periodic step back, particularly a small step back,” Rick Meckler, president of LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey, told Reuters.

In the meantime, George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty to providing false information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Furthermore, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates turned themselves into authorities on Monday but pleaded not guilty to alleged money laundering charges.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 85.82 points, or 0.37%, to 23,348.37, the S&P 500 fell 8.38 points, or 0.33%, to 2,572.69 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.29 points, or 0.03%, to 6,698.98.

Headlines from the NA session:

• Market wrap: politics weighs on dollar and US yields - Westpac
• Manafort, Gates plead not guilty to charges in Russia probe - Reuters
• US Dollar tumbles below mid-94s on news of gradual implementation of tax cuts
• All eyes on EU and US yields - Scotiabank
• Eurozone Super Tuesday: four things to look out for - ING
• US: Personal consumption surged in September while income continued to disappoint  - Wells Fargo
• WH Official: Trump expected to announce his choice for Fed chair on Thursday - Reuters
• Papadopoulos, former Trump foreign policy advise, pleaded guilty in Mueller probe - BBG
• Atlanta Fed: GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth in Q3 at 2.9%
• Dallas Fed: Growth in Texas manufacturing activity gains momentum