NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks edged lower early Monday ahead of a deluge of quarterly earnings reports from large banks and other companies.

All three major indices had closed at records on Friday on optimism that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.

But investors hit the pause button to start a week that includes reports from JPMorgan Chase and other banks, as well as other companies such as Netflix, United Continental and Johnson & Johnson.

Key economic releases this week include retail sales for June as well as industrial production and housing starts for the same period.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 27,313.17, down 0.1 percent.

The broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.1 percent to 3,011.25, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was down a hair at 8,242.42.

Citigroup fell 1.3 percent as it reported a 6.9 percent rise in second-quarter profits to $4.8 billion, kicking off the reporting season for large banks. Executives said uncertainty over trade conflicts weighed on corporate lending.

Dow member Boeing fell 1.4 percent as both American Airlines and United Continental extended their plans for grounding the 737 MAX planes due to uncertainty over when regulators will allow the jets to fly after two crashes. —AFP