Dow closes more than 150 points lower as stocks take a break from their rally: Live updates

Stocks slipped Monday to start a shortened trading week as the rally that brought Wall Street to record levels took a breather.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 162.26 points, or 0.41%, closing at 39,313.64. The S&P 500 dipped 0.31% to finish at 5,218.19, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.27% and settled at 16,384.47.

Shares of Intel slid 1.7% after the Financial Times reported that new China guidelines would block the company's chips in government servers and computers. United Airlines fell 3.4% after the Federal Aviation Administration said it would be heightening its scrutiny of the carrier after a series of safety incidents.

The market is on track for its fifth consecutive month of gains, with the major U.S. stock benchmarks crossing new all-time closing high levels last week. The S&P 500 added roughly 2.3% last week, while the Dow gained just under 2% for its best week since December, nearing the 40,000 level. The Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, jumped about 2.9% during the period.

These advances were fueled by the Federal Reserve's latest remarks that maintained central bankers' rate-cutting timeline for this year, as well as investors' ongoing enthusiasm for tech stocks amid the AI-powered rally. Overall investor sentiment remains above its historical average, according to the latest weekly American Association of Individual Investors' sentiment survey, reflecting persistent market optimism.

Still, some investors fear the potential impact of an overextended rally and higher-for-longer interest rates. Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, also noted that equities have gotten expensive, with the S&P now trading at a 33% premium to its average price-to-earnings ratio over the last 20 years, he