Wall Street was sluggish after the US dollar hit a record low against the euro and investors reflected on a mixed set of brokerage results.

Attention was focused on Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, and Hank Paulson, Treasury secretary, who testified before Congress about the subprime mortgage crisis. The S&P 500 closed 0.7 per cent lower at 1,518.74. The Nasdaq Composite was off 0.5 per cent at 2,654.29; the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 0.4 per cent at 13,766.70.