After opening in the green, US equity markets quickly turned downwards on Friday morning, victims of profit-taking after their recent record-breaking run.

At around 11:00 a.m., the Dow Jones was down 0.1% at 43,901.7 points, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.4% at 19,830.6 points, back below the symbolic 20,000-point threshold crossed for the first time in its history on Wednesday.000 mark, crossed for the first time in its history on Wednesday.

The technology-weighted index had nevertheless managed to set a new record at 20,061 points earlier in the day.

Over the week as a whole, the Dow is currently down by almost 1.8%, while the Nasdaq is holding on to a symbolic gain of 0.2%.

Investors seem intent on playing it safe after the sharp rise of recent months and ahead of next week's Fed meeting, which will be its last of the year.

The euphoric phase triggered by Trump's victory has seen US equities reach new highs in recent weeks, but analysts fear that the momentum will run out of steam in early 2025.

Some professionals are pointing to a number of worrying factors on the eve of the new year, including the possibility of fewer rate cuts than expected from the Fed, but also the high level of valuations, especially for the 'Magnificent Seven'.

Technology stocks are also affected by some profit-taking following the recent breach of the 20,000-point mark on the Nasdaq.

On the upside, however, chipmaker Broadcom jumped 20% following the publication of its quarterly results, taking its market capitalization above the 1,000 billion mark.

The semiconductor specialist thus joins the 'Top 10' of the world's largest valuations, behind Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Saudi Aramco, Meta, Tesla and TSMC.

Profit-taking is accentuated by the absence of any leading economic indicators or news likely to fuel the recent upward movement.

On the economic front, import prices rose by 0.1% in November compared with the previous month, according to the Labor Department, while export prices stagnated.

On a rolling 12-month basis, US import and export prices respectively rose by 1.3% (+2.3% excluding fuel) and 0.8% (+1.2% excluding agricultural commodities) last month.

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