S&P 500 drops as tech stocks slump

Meanwhile, Dow Jones soars, records another all-time high

A slide in technology stocks left the S&P 500 slightly lower Tuesday on Wall Street, even as the Dow Jones Industrial Average marked another all-time high.

The S&P 500 slipped

0.1 percent, while the techheavy Nasdaq composite fell 1.3 percent after a day of choppy trading. The Dow rose 0.6 percent, thanks partly to solid gains by Caterpillar and Jpmorgan Chase, which rose 5.4 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively.

Banks were among the biggest gainers as bond yields rose, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury to 1.65 percent from 1.63 percent late Monday. The yield was at 1.51 percent Friday. When investors sell bonds, their prices fall and their yields rise.

More than 65 percent of the stocks in the S&P 500 rose. Still, the slump in technology stocks, which are the most heavily weighted sector in the benchmark index, left the S&P 500 in the red. Microsoft fell 1.7 percent, Apple slid 1.3 percent, and chipmaker Nvidia dropped 2.8 percent.

“Interest-rate sensitive sectors are up, and those longer-term growth sectors are down today, not surprising given the two-day move in the 10-year Treasury,” said Tom Hainlin, national investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “You’re seeing investors price in fairly strong growth in inflation expectations for the future, or at least for 2022.”

The S&P 500 fell

3.02 points to 4,793.54. The Nasdaq slid 210.08 points to 15,622.72. The Dow gained 214.59 points to 36,799.65.

Smaller-company stocks gave up a little ground. The Russell 2000 index fell 3.68 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,268.87.

Stocks got 2022 off to a good start Monday, with the S&P 500 and Dow setting new highs. A mix of economic data and corporate quarterly earnings reports should give investors some insight into the impact that the coronavirus pandemic and persistently rising inflation are having on companies and consumers.

The job market will be a major focus for investors, starting with the Labor Department’s jobs report for December, which will be released Friday. On Tuesday, the agency’s monthly Jobs Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that a record 4.5 million American workers quit their jobs in November, a sign of confidence and more evidence that the U.S. job market is bouncing back strongly from last year’s coronavirus recession.