A currency trader walks by the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 12, 2021. Stocks were mixed in Asia on Friday after broad gains lifted several major indexes to all-time highs on Wall Street.
A currency trader walks by the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 12, 2021. Stocks were mixed in Asia on Friday after broad gains lifted several major indexes to all-time highs on Wall Street.
Currency traders watch computer monitors near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 12, 2021. Stocks were mixed in Asia on Friday after broad gains lifted several major indexes to all-time highs on Wall Street.
A currency trader watches computer monitors near the screens showing the foreign exchange rates at the foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 12, 2021. Stocks were mixed in Asia on Friday after broad gains lifted several major indexes to all-time highs on Wall Street.
A currency trader walks by the screen showing the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 12, 2021. Stocks were mixed in Asia on Friday after broad gains lifted several major indexes to all-time highs on Wall Street.
FILE – In this Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021 file photo, people walk by the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks are off to a mixed start on Wall Street as another sharp rise in bond yields unsettled investors. Technology stocks were among the biggest losers in the early going Friday, March 121 pulling the Nasdaq down 1.5% while the broader S&P 500 index gave back 0.5%.
Stocks were mostly lower in afternoon trading Friday as technology stocks, which had spent most of the week holding steady or climbing, fell broadly. The move was once again caused by a rise in bond yields.
The S&P 500 index was down 0.3% as of 12:10 p.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 140 points, or 0.4% to 32,626, lifted by industrial stocks like Boeing and Caterpillar. The technology-heavy Nasdaq was down 1.1%.
Even with the modest losses, all three indexes are on pace end the week up 2% or more.
It was the usual cast of characters in technology who were moving lower on Friday. Apple was down 1.2%, Facebook was down 2.3%, Google’s parent company fell 2.7% and Microsoft lost 1%. These big technology companies soared last year as investors bet that pandemic-quarantined Americans would spend even more time online. But as the pandemic eases this year, and bond yields rise, more expensive stocks such as these have struggled.
The bond market was the dominant force in pushing stocks mostly downward. After remaining stable for most of the week, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note jumped to 1.62% from 1.52% a day earlier. Investors had sold off stocks late last week after that yield crossed above the 1.60% mark.
The increase in bond yields comes as President Joe Biden signed into law the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, which will include $1,400 checks for most Americans as well as additional payments for those with children or those who collected unemployment benefits last year. President Biden also laid out a plan, in a primetime speech Thursday, to expand vaccine eligibility to all Americans by May 1.
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