U.S. stocks slipped on Tuesday, weighed by profit-taking in some of the shares that propelled Wall Street to a nine-month high.

Investors took the opportunity to sell winning shares in the technology, materials and energy sectors after Monday's run-up extended the benchmark S&P 500's <.SPX> rally of nearly 48 percent since early March.

Obviously the market has had a great run in the last month. It's tough to really build steam after you've extended yourself as far as this, said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor & Fitzgerald & Co in San Francisco.

A stronger-than-expected increase in June pending homes sales limited losses as the data added to hopes of a turnaround in economy.

Pending sales of previously U.S. homes rose at a faster-than-expected pace in June, advancing for the fifth-straight month for the first time in six years, according to the National Association of Realtors.

For those that look at housing as the catalyst from which we have to emerge, this is going to be considered a positive, said Pado.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> shed 15.64 points, or 0.17 percent to 9,272.28. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> lost 3.77 points, or 0.38 percent to, 998.86. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was off 8.51 points, or 0.42 percent, to 2,008.61.

Energy shares were among the top drags amid a pullback in oil prices. U.S. front-month crude fell about 0.3 percent to $71.38 a barrel.

Also Tuesday, a Commerce Department report showed U.S. consumer spending rose slightly more than expected in June, though personal income declined month over month by a greater-than-expected 1.3 percent, the biggest decrease since January 2005.

(Editing by Padraic Cassidy)