A fresh rise in Treasury yields weighed heavily on technology stocks and dragged the benchmark US equity indices lower – Dow down -121-points or -0.39%, settling near its session low. The broader S&P500 fell -1.31% with Information Technology (down -2.49%) and Consumer Discretionary (-2.38%) both down over >2% and leading eight of the eleven primary sectors lower. Energy (up +1.43%) and Financials (+0.75%) were the leading primary sector performers. The S&P 500 financial and industrial sector indexes touched intra-day record highs. Just five companies - Apple Inc (down -2.45%), Amazon.com Inc (-2.89%), Microsoft Corp (-2.70%), Google-parent Alphabet Inc (-2.37%) and Tesla (-4.84%) – accounted for almost half the S&P500’s decline. Exxon Mobil Corp rose +0.8% after the oil major unveiled plans to grow dividends and curb spending with projections that were less bold than previous years at the company’s Investor Day. The Nasdaq dropped -2.70%, paring its year-to-date gains to +0.85%. Netflix Inc shed -4.95%. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 index lost -1.06%.
