Wall Street stocks dipped early Monday to begin a holiday-shortened week that includes a US retail sales report and congressional testimony from Boeing's CEO.

After hitting records last week on two of the three indices, US stocks began the week on a cautious note.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3 percent at 38,479.72.

The broad-based S&P 500 dipped 0.1 percent to 5,427.77, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was flat at 17,688.58.

Investors in New York are monitoring developments in France, where political uncertainty over upcoming snap elections weighed on equities last week and in Britain, where the Bank of England will hold a policy meeting this week.

Among individual companies, Boeing edged up 0.5 percent as markets look ahead to Tuesday's hearing in the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations into the aviation giant's safety problems.

Markets will be closed Wednesday to mark the Juneteenth National Independence Day.