US STOCKS-Nasdaq, S&P 500 fall, pressured by rising U.S. Treasury yields

  • Reuters
  • Stock Market News
US STOCKS-Nasdaq, S&P 500 fall, pressured by rising U.S. Treasury yields
Credit: © Reuters.

* Technology-related companies resume slide

* Discovery (JO: DSBPp ) rises on strong paid streaming subscribers forecast

* Dow up 0.44%, S&P 500 down 0.21%, Nasdaq down 1.41% (Updates to mid-afternoon, adds analyst comments, updates prices)

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK, Feb 22 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell on Monday as climbing Treasury yields and prospects of rising inflation triggered valuation concerns, hitting shares of high-flying growth companies.

The Dow index, on the other hand, was higher, boosted by a 5% gain in Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS ) Co DIS.N .

U.S. benchmark 10-year Treasury yields were up at 1.36% US10YT=RR on Monday. Since the beginning of February, 10-year yields have risen about 26 basis points, on track for their largest monthly gain in three years.

"Investors are a little nervous about Treasury yields rising so quickly and it has been a pretty quick move in a short period of time," said Lindsey Bell, chief investment strategist at Ally Invest, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"What investors are grappling with ... is what does this mean from an inflation perspective. Because of that, there's a little bit of tantrum in the market right now," she added.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, and investors are expected to look for any potential changes to the central bank's dovish outlook in recent months. of Apple Inc AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O , Tesla Inc TSLA.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O resumed their slide from the previous week, falling between 0.9% and 5%.

Largely upbeat fourth-quarter earnings had powered Wall Street's main indexes to record highs earlier last week, but the rally lost steam, in part due to fears of a potential snag in U.S. vaccination efforts and inflation concerns emanating from a raft of stimulus measures.

In afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 137.26 points, or 0.44%, to 31,631.58, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 8.3 points, or 0.21%, to 3,898.41 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 195.70 points, or 1.41%, to 13,678.76.

The S&P 500 .SPX was on track for a five-day losing streak, its worst in one year.

Value stocks .IVX have outperformed growth shares .IGX in February, with investors betting on a rebound in industrial activity and a pickup in consumer demand as countries roll out vaccines to tame the pandemic.

The S&P 500 industrials .SPLRCI and financial sector .SPSY rose 0.8% and 1.1%, respectively, while energy stocks .SPNY surged 4.5% on higher oil prices. [O/R

Discovery Inc DISCA.O jumped 9.5% after the media company said it was expecting 12 million global paid streaming subscribers by the end of February, as coronavirus-led restrictions kept people at home. Corp KSS.N gained 7.9% after a group of activist investors nominated nine directors to the department store chain's board. Financial Group Inc PFG.O added 8.8% after a media report that activist investor Elliott Management Corp had taken a stake in the life insurance company and planned to push for changes. issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.14-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.17-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 71 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 252 new highs and 10 new lows.

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