By Dion Rabouin
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar slumped and U.S. equities headed for their first back-to-back daily declines of the month as the rally that sent Wall Street stocks to record highs since Donald Trump's U.S. election victory paused ahead of the Christmas holiday weekend.
Stocks have surged since the Nov. 8 election, but were lower in light trading as traders took profits. The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 have all risen more than 5 percent in the six weeks since Trump's victory, with the Nasdaq and Dow both touching record highs earlier this week.
"With less traders on their desks and most investors planning where to spend their New Year's Eve, markets have clearly entered the holiday mood," said Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM.
"We can barely see any significant moves in equities, fixed income or even currency markets today, suggesting that more consolidation is expected throughout the remaining days of 2016."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) fell 21.68 points, or 0.11 percent, to 19,920.28, the S&P 500 (SPX) lost 3.97 points, or 0.18 percent, to 2,261.21 and the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) dropped 14.27 points, or 0.26 percent, to 5,457.16.
The U.S. dollar (DXY), which has also surged since Election Day on bets that President-elect Trump's policies will spur economic growth and inflation, fell 0.3 percent against a basket of currencies, pulling further away from the 14-year high it set earlier this week. [FRX/]
Traders brushed off data showing the U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in two years in the third quarter and booked profits on bullish dollar bets.
European markets were also broadly lower, with the pan-European STOXX 600 (STOXX) index down 0.4 percent, falling for the second straight session after marking its highest level since Jan. 4.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (MIAPJ0000PUS) slipped 0.7 percent with the Nikkei (N225) finishing 0.1 percent lower, having hit one-year highs this week.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index (HSI) was down 0.8 percent after touching its lowest level since July, though Australian shares (AXJO) finished up 0.5 percent, extending gains into a fourth straight session.
A metric of stocks markets around the globe (MIWD00000PUS) fell 0.2 percent.
Emerging market bourses saw the sharpest of the day's declines in equities with MSCI's emerging markets index (MSCIEF) falling more than 1 percent to a one-month low. It has closed lower in six of the last seven sessions.
The U.S. election outcome has slammed emerging market currencies and equities as Trump's campaign pledges to rewrite trade deals and a steep rise in U.S. interest rates and the value of the dollar, which increases the cost of repaying loans many countries have in U.S. currency, have sent investors fleeing for the exits.
U.S. Treasury yields edged up slightly after the GDP data, and as investors prepared for new Treasury supply next week.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields (US10YT=RR) rose to 2.577 percent. Yields have risen by around 80 points since the U.S. election.
Oil prices rose by around 1 percent, spurred by the pause in the dollar rally and optimism that crude producers would abide by an agreement to limit output to prop up prices.
Copper prices