Big Tech leads slide pulling indexes lower

Stocks gave up an early gain and wound up broadly lower Wednesday on Wall Street, led by declines in tech heavyweights like Facebook and Apple.

The S&P 500 fell 0.5%, its second loss in a row, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 2%.

Bond yields mostly fell after rising earlier this week. Crude oil prices rose 6%. Bank stocks, which took a beating on Tuesday, were among the best performers. Banks have been volatile the last couple of weeks as investors try to gauge the impact of higher interest rates on the U.S. economy. Higher interest rates can slow economic momentum, but they also allow banks to charge more for loans. JPMorgan Chase added 1.1%.

Investors had their eye on Washington, where Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spoke before the Senate about the government’s efforts to combat the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

GameStop sank 31.6% after reporting results that missed Wall Street’s forecasts, though the stock is still up nearly sevenfold for the year after it became a social media darling for a swarm of online investors. The company took no questions from investors on its quarterly conference call late Tuesday.

The pandemic remains a dominant topic for investors. Stocks fell on Tuesday after Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, and the Netherlands extended lockdowns and imposed new travel and business curbs in response to spikes in infection. That followed similar moves earlier by Italy and France.

“There’s a feeling that we’re not quite done with COVID-19 yet at all,” said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network. “That, combined with other concerns, is creating a lot of uncertainty.”