Technology rout punishes U.S. stocks

Nasdaq falls 3.3%, wiping out most of Monday’s gain.

A selloff in technology shares sent U.S. equity benchmarks lower, with losses accelerating late in the day. Bonds surged on demand for safe havens, pushing the yield on 10-year Treasuries below a key level.

Trade angst weighed on leading tech companies with

the Nasdaq 100 index erasing most of Monday’s gain after a report the Trump administration is consider- ing a crackdown on Chinese investments in technologies the U.S. considers sensitive. Facebook’s woes mounted

and Nvidia spooked investors in chipmakers. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index — Wall Street’s fear gauge — spiked.

The equity selling bled into the Treasury market, sending the 10-year yield below 2.8

percent as investors sought havens. One bright spot was General Electric, which rose the most in two months on speculation that Warren Buf- fett will buy a stake in the troubled conglomerate.

Investors have been whip- sawed over the past few trading sessions as equities tumbled last week, only to rebound sharply Monday and then resume their selloff Tuesday. Traders are trying to suss out whether the U.S. will reach negotiated truces to ward off an allout trade war after fears grew that there could be a surge in protectionism in the midst of rising borrow

ing costs and concerns that inflation could be poised to accelerate.

“The bottom line is the trade issue and uncertainty related to that is not going to fade in one day because all of a sudden we started thinking

that we would reach some sort of a settlement with China,” Krishna Memani, chief investment officer at OppenheimerFunds, said by phone. “This is going to be somewhat of a long process for things to settle down.”

Elsewhere, European stocks posted their biggest gain in six weeks. The dol- lar rose as the pound and euro fell. China’s currency touched the highest level in almost three years. And copper broke out of a three-day edging trading across In Asia, slump, the shares board, were higher. green with Japan’s Topix index jumping the most since November 2016. South Korea’s won was the best performer among major currencies as Kim Jong Un was said to be making an unannounced visit to Beijing, his first known trip outside North Korea since taking power in 2011. Here’s a list of the main events coming up this week: ■ The big four euroarea economies are due to release March CPI readings this week. ■ U.S. personal income and spending data for February are due to be released on Thursday. ■ The Treasury will probably auction about $294 billion of bills and notes this week, its largest slate of supply ever. And these are the main moves in markets: ■ The S&P 500 slumped 1.7 percent as of the close of trading in New York. ■ The Nasdaq 100 index fell 3.3 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 1.4 percent. GE surged more than 4 percent. ■ The Stoxx Europe 600 Index jumped 1.2 percent.