Stocks take breather following record run

U.S. equity futures are pointing lower after a session that saw the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit new highs.

The major futures indexes are indicating a slip of 0.1 percent when Wall Street begins trading.

U.S. stocks shook off their latest coronavirus-induced losses, breaching new record highs.

Technology stocks led the rally, as Apple rallied to recover most of its loss from the prior day. It dropped Tuesday after warning that revenue this quarter would fall short of forecasts due to the viral outbreak centered in China.

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In Asia, China's Shanghai benchmark jumped nearly 2 percent after China's central bank cut interest rates to help ease credit for companies stricken by the virus outbreak centered on the city of Wuhan. The index finished the day up 1.8 percent.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei gained 0.3 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.2 percent.

Worries remain about how disruptive the virus will be for manufacturing, travel and other economic activity across the region, but markets around the world rose as the number of new virus cases in China fell Wednesday.

In Europe, London's FTSE gained 0.1 percent, Germany's DAX was 0.1 percent lower and France's CAC was off 0.2 percent.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
I:DJI	DOW JONES AVERAGES	37775.38	+22.07	+0.06%
SP500	S&P 500	5011.12	-11.09	-0.22%
I:COMP	NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX	15601.498878	-81.87	-0.52%

In New York on Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.5 percent to 3,386.15, surpassing its record set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4 percent to 29,348.03. The Nasdaq climbed 0.9 percent to 9,817.18 and also set a record.

China cut its loan prime rate to 4.05% from 4.15% on Thursday, a move aimed at mitigating the economic damage from the COVID-19 sickness that is spreading mostly in China.

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Low rates have been a key underpinning for the strong U.S. stock market, which has rallied even though growth in corporate profits has been weak. The Fed released minutes Wednesday afternoon from its last policy meeting, where officials said they see the current level of monetary policy “as likely to remain appropriate for a time,” at least until data on the economy shows a change in momentum.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.