Technology stocks help avert rout in market

Bad news on jobs, GNP causes most stocks to slump.

NEW YORK — Most of Wall Street stumbled Thursday, but yet another rise for big technology stocks helped keep the market’s losses in check.

The S&P 500 dropped 0.4%, with nearly three out of four stocks in the index falling. Among the hardest-hit were oil producers, banks and other companies that most need the economy to pull out of its recession.

Treasury yields also sank in a sign of increased pessimism about the economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.9% after being down close to 2%.

Stronger-than-expected profit reports from UPS and other companies helped the market trim its losses through the day. So did steadying prices for Amazon and other big tech-oriented stocks, which reported their own results after the day’s trading ended. Anticipation for their reports helped the Nasdaq composite completely erase its early loss and climb 0.4%.

The jumbled trading came after a report showed that layoffs are continuing at their stubborn pace across the country, denting hopes that the economy can recover nearly as quickly as it plummeted into recession.

A separate report on Thursday showed that the U.S. economy contracted at a nearly 33% annual rate in the spring, the worst quarter on record.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 0.55% from 0.58% late Wednesday.

It tends to move with investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation.

Benchmark U.S. crude dropped $1.35 to settle at $39.32 per barrel.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell 81 cents to $42.94 a barrel.