US stocks lower at the start of a new week

   •  Extend last week’s retracement from record highs. 
   •  US tax-delay concerns weighing.
   •  UK political jitters further dent investors’ appetite. 

Major US equity indices extended last week's retracement from record highs and witnessed a weaker opening on Monday on uncertainty around the Republican tax-cut legislation.

During the opening hour of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost over 65-points to 23,355, while the broader S&P 500 Index fell nearly 7-points to 2,575. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index underperformed and slipped around 23-points to 6,727.

Today's slide came after the Dow and S&P 500 suffered their first weekly decline since early September amid growing anxiety about a possible delay in the highly-anticipated corporate tax cuts, which had been one of the key factors driving the markets to record highs since the beginning of this year.

Last Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee released its draft tax bill, which differed from the House Republicans’ plan and proposed to delay implementing a cut in corporate tax to a 20% rate from 35% until 2019.

The market sentiment was further being weighed down by the latest political development in the UK, where in 40 members of parliament from Prime Minister May's Conservative Party have agreed to sign a letter of no confidence.