Stocks mixed as volatility continues for tech sector

Stocks swung between gains and losses as investors assessed the chances for a detente in the U.S.China trade tussle. The dollar and Treasuries advanced.

Tech shares pushed around the S&P 500, with Netflix rising and Apple falling. President Donald Trump threatened more tariffs on China ahead of meeting with counterpart Xi Jinping, while economic adviser Larry Kudlow has said Trump is open to a trade deal. Major retailers got a boost as results from the biggest shopping weekend of the year showed an increase in online shopping. Small caps dropped.

The 10-year Treasury yield edged higher, while the dollar gained for a second day after comments by several Federal Reserve officials, including Vice Chairman Richard Clarida, who backed gradual rate hikes. The pound weakened as traders mulled prospects for parliamentary approval of the Brexit deal, which Trump said could jeopardize Britain’s ability to strike a trade pact with the U.S. West Texas crude traded above $51 a barrel.

Elsewhere, emerging market shares climbed. Bitcoin steadied around $3,700 after plunging 14 percent Monday.

“The news flow on the U.S.-China trade dispute has certainly been erratic and unpredictable, and the latest reports have weighed on US markets as we speak,” Neil MacKinnon, London-based global macro strategist at VTB Capital and a former U.K. Treasury official, said by phone. “Investors are a little bit anxious that the G20 meeting might not produce an agreement or even a truce on the trade dispute.”

Trade remains firmly in investors’ minds before leaders of the two biggest economies meet in Buenos Aires at the end of the week. Trump indicated in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Monday that, besides a scheduled bump-up in tariff rates on $200 billion of Chinese imports in January, he’d also slap new duties on the remaining imports that have so far escaped his levies, depending on how talks proceed.