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Stock market news live updates: Dow rallies while Nasdaq slides into a correction as tech rout deepens

 

Stocks ended mixed on Monday and Treasury yields climbed further after Congress made headway toward passing another significant COVID-19 relief package.

The Dow surged to reach a record intraday high before paring some gains to end about 300 points, or 1%, higher on the day. The Nasdaq declined by 2%, adding to recent losses after the index closed out its third straight weekly decline last week amid a drawdown in tech and growth stocks. The tech-heavy index sank into a correction as of market close, dipping more than 10% from its recent record closing high from February 12.

The utilities, financials and materials sectors outperformed in the S&P 500, while information technology and communication services lagged. The index overall closed lower by 0.5%.

Treasury yields resurged across the curve, and the benchmark 10-year yield spiked to a one-year high of more than 1.61% after the U.S. Senate passed a $1.9 trillion virus relief package over the weekend, with the additional stimulus seen likely to boost the pace of the economic recovery.

The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to vote Tuesday on the Senate's version of the stimulus bill, which includes $300 per week in enhanced federal unemployment benefits through early September, $350 billion in state and local aid and $1,400 stimulus checks to most Americans, albeit under tighter income restrictions than had been included in the earlier House version of the bill. The Senate bill, which passed on a party-line vote, is likely to be approved in the House and signed by President Joe Biden before a March 14 deadline, so as to renew pandemic-era federal unemployment benefits from mid-March through early September.

The prospects of a strong recovery enabled by both the ongoing vaccine rollout as well as the historic levels of fiscal and monetary policy stimulus have simultaneously pushed growth forecasts sharply higher, while also stoking concerns over an overly rapid rise in inflation. Jitters over an eruption of price pressures and higher interest rates have recently provoked volatility in equity markets. However, some strategists suggested these fears may be overblown, and that rising rates should be in fact taken more positively as a signal of a firming economic backdrop.

"Equities often struggle when interest rates rise sharply, particularly when driven by real rates," Goldman Sachs equity strategist David Kostin wrote in a note Friday. "Stretched investor positioning has exacerbated the sharp recent equity market response, particularly because both hedge funds and retail investor have held large positions in long-duration equities that are particularly sensitive to interest rates."

However, "even though the recent backup in rates has weighed on equity prices broadly, the pace of inflows into equity funds during the last few weeks has accelerated compared with the start of the year," Kostin added. "The rotation into equity funds has most favored strategies that benefit from accelerated economic growth."

Namely, cyclical sectors like energy and financials have outperformed for the year-to-date and especially in recent weeks, and shares of companies in high-contact industries including air travel and lodging have resurged after a difficult 2020.

4:02 p.m. ET: Nasdaq slides into a correction, dropping 10% from record high as tech rout deepens

Here were the main moves in markets as of 4:02 p.m. ET:

  • S&P 500 (^GSPC): -20.65 (-0.54%) to 3,821.29

  • Dow (^DJI): +306.08 (+0.97%) to 31,802.38

  • Nasdaq (^IXIC): -310.99 (-2.41%) to 12,609.16

  • Crude (CL=F): -$1.39 (-2.10%) to $64.70 a barrel

  • Gold (GC=F): -$19.70 (-1.16%) to $1,678.80 per ounce

  • 10-year Treasury (^TNX): +4.2 bps to yield 1.5960%

1:50 p.m. ET: Tesla shares point toward a fifth day of losses, reversing course after 2020 rally

Shares of Tesla (TSLA) sank during Monday's session as the electric car-maker's stock gave back more of its 2020 advances. The stock has fallen 17.5% for the year-to-date through Monday's session, versus a gain of 3% in the S&P 500.

The electric car-maker's stock surged by 743% last year as record-setting vehicle deliveries, ramp-up of its Shanghai Gigafactory, multiple consecutive quarters of profitability and inclusion in the S&P 500 helped boost shares. However, investors have increasingly eschewed high-growth stocks like Tesla in favor of shares of companies more closely tied to an economic reopening, and with valuations less stretched by some traditional metrics.

The ARKK Innovation ETF (ARKK), which counts Tesla as its top holding by market value, has plunged by 22% over the past two weeks, as Tesla and other high-flying tech names like Square and Roku gave back some of their 2020 gains.

12:37 p.m. ET: Apple shares slide to three-month low as tech selloff extends further

Shares of Apple (AAPL) — a heavily weighted component in each of the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq – declined as much as 3.3% to $117.40 apiece on Monday, reaching the lowest level in three months.

Apple had been one of the best-performing big tech stocks in 2020, rallying 81% to outpace even the gain of Amazon over the course of the year. Shares have fallen about 11% in 2021 so far through intraday trading on Monday, but are still up about 63.5% over last year.

12:22 p.m. ET: Stocks mixed, Dow adds 500+ points while Nasdaq adds to losses

Here's where markets were trading Monday afternoon:

  • S&P 500 (^GSPC): +24.65 points (+0.64%) to 3,866.59

  • Dow (^DJI): +520.13 points (+1.65%) to 32,016.43

  • Nasdaq (^IXIC): -83.12 points (-0.64%) to 12,836.97

  • Crude (CL=F): -$1.09 (-1.65%) to $65.00 a barrel

  • Gold (GC=F): -$22.80 (-1.34%) to $1,675.70 per ounce

  • 10-year Treasury (^TNX): +5.1 bps to yield 1.605%

11:55 a.m. ET: Wholesale inventories increased 1.3% while sales surged as demand picks up

Inventories at U.S. wholesales rose by 1.3% in January over December, the Commerce Department said Monday, with this growth rate matching consensus economists' expectations.

At the same time, sales at wholesalers jumped by 4.9%, far exceeding consensus expectations for a 0.9% rise. This also accelerated from December's 1.9% increase.

It would take approximately 1.24 months for wholesalers to clear shelves at January's sales pace, marking the lowest level in more than six years and speaking to the pick-up in demand for goods as the pandemic begins to abate.

10:43 a.m. ET: Federal Reserve extends Paycheck Protection liquidity facilities through the end of June

The Federal Reserve announced Monday that it will extend a pandemic-era liquidity facility meant to help offer relief to small businesses under the Paycheck Protection Program through June 30. This marked a three month extension relative to the previous expiration date of the facility.

However, other emergency facilities under the Fed, including the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility and Primary Dealer Credit Facility will retain their March 31 expiration date due to low usage in recent months.

9:30 a.m. ET: Stocks open mixed, Nasdaq trades lower while S&P 500 and Dow rise

Here's where markets were trading shortly after the opening bell Monday morning:

  • S&P 500 (^GSPC): +6.91 points (+0.16%) to 3,848.03

  • Dow (^DJI): +134.64 points (+0.43%) to 31,630.94

  • Nasdaq (^IXIC): -35.71 points (-0.24%) to 12,890.28

  • Crude (CL=F): +$0.41 (-0.62%) to $65.68 a barrel

  • Gold (GC=F): -$7.20 (-0.42%) to $1,691.30 per ounce

  • 10-year Treasury (^TNX): +3.1 bps to yield 1.585%

9:06 a.m. ET: 'We remain of the view that cyclical stocks continue to lead on the upside, but also see some broadening out in market participation': JPMorgan

Over the past several weeks, investors have been aggressively rotating out of technology stocks and into the cyclical names that had been the hardest hit last year during the pandemic. Rising interest rates also exerted more pressure on growth stocks' high valuations. That said, given the sizable downdraft in tech shares recently, these names could be poised to start to stabilize, according to at least one strategist.

"The recent market volatility has been largely a function of a painful underlying market rotation out of high momentum and expensive growth stocks as rates and inflation expectations underwent a sharp adjustment," JPMorgan strategist Dubravko Lakos-Bujas wrote in a note Monday morning. "We see higher rates largely as a function of earlier and stronger than expected economic recovery and supportive of our positive equity outlook."

"We remain of the view that cyclical stocks continue to lead on the upside as the business cycle strengthens, but also see some broadening out in market participation given the significant de-risking that has occurred within high growth and expensive momentum stocks," he said.

He added that the price-earnings multiple of momentum stocks have "significantly converged" to that of the broader market, after being elevated at the end of 2020.

"In this process, growth stocks have also gotten substantially de-risked, de-coupled from momentum factor, and now appear much less vulnerable (e.g. even to rising bond yields)," he said.

7:18 a.m. ET Monday: Stock futures point to a lower open

Here's where markets were trading ahead of the opening bell:

  • S&P 500 futures (ES=F): 3,819.25, down 19.75 points or 0.51%

  • Dow futures (YM=F): 31,457.00, down 8 points or 0.03%

  • Nasdaq futures (NQ=F): 12,489.50, down 174.25 points or 1.38%

  • Crude (CL=F): $66.26 per barrel, +$0.17 (+0.26%)

  • Gold (GC=F): $1,683.80 per ounce, -$14.70 (-0.87%)

  • 10-year Treasury (^TNX): +4.2 bps to yield 1.596%

Traders wearing masks work, on the first day of in-person trading since the closure during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 26, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Traders wearing masks work, on the first day of in-person trading since the closure during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 26, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck

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