U.S. stocks turn lower as investors grow prudent

U.S. stocks reversed earlier gains to trade lower in midday Monday, as investors seemingly grew cautious after the Dow Jones Industrial Average logged its largest daily gains in seven months on Friday.

The market opened higher, extending gains on Friday, as investors continued to cheer the stronger-than-expected monthly jobs report which showed U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment added 248,000 last month and jobless rates slipped to an over six- year low of 5.9 percent.

However, major stock indices drifted lower when coming close to noon, as investors got cautious somewhat, awaiting more clues on rate hike prospects from the U.S. Federal Reserve's minutes of the latest policy meeting scheduled for Wednesday.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists said in a note that they expected the minutes to show "a lively debate on the unchanged statement," which retained the language of "a considerable time" between the end of bond buying and the first rate hike.

On corporate news, Hewlett-Packard's shares rose 5.40 percent to trade at 37.10 U.S. dollars apiece midday as the company planned to split into two new publicly traded companies, one comprising its personal computer and printing businesses and the other comprising its enterprise technology infrastructure, software and services businesses.

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. announced Monday that it has entered into an agreement with Anbang Insurance Group Co. Ltd. to sell the Waldorf Astoria New York hotel to the Chinese insurer. In response, shares of Hilton Worldwide initially moved higher, but slipped 0.66 percent to trade at 24.16 dollars apiece around midday.

In midday, the Dow fell 33.14 points, or 0.19 percent, to 16, 976.55. The S&P 500 lost 5.59 points, or 0.28 percent, to 1,962.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 22.96 points, or 0.51 percent, to 4,452.67.