(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
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* Technology-related companies resume slide
* Discovery rises on strong paid streaming subscribers
forecast
* Indexes: S&P down 0.55%, Nasdaq falls 1.69%, Dow up 0.09%
(Adds comments, updates prices to early afternoon)
By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
Feb 22 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes came under
pressure on Monday as climbing Treasury yields and prospects of
rising inflation triggered valuation concerns, hitting shares of
high-flying growth companies.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak
before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, and investors
are expected to look for any potential changes to the central
bank's dovish outlook in recent months. Shares of Apple Inc AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O ,
Facebook Inc FB.O , Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O , Tesla Inc TSLA.O ,
Netflix Inc NFLX.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O resumed their
slide from the previous week, falling between 0.7% and 5%.
A largely upbeat fourth-quarter earnings had powered Wall
Street's main indexes to record highs earlier last week, but the
rally lost steam on fears of a potential snag in countrywide
inoculation efforts and inflation concerns rising from a raft of
stimulus measures.
"There's little new money going into the market. It is like
everyone has bought in and, at some point, there's an exhaustion
of buyers and the market tends to come down a little bit," said
David Keller, chief market strategist at StockCharts.com.
"The market is recognizing the general euphoric sentiment
conditions that we've had."
The benchmark 10-year yield US10YT=RR was little changed
on Monday but had been as high as 1.394% overnight, the highest
since Feb 2020. US/
The S&P 500 .SPX was down 21.41 points, or 0.55%, at
3,885.30, on track for a five-day losing, its worst in one year.
Value stocks .IVX have outperformed growth shares .IGX
in February, with investors betting on a rebound in industrial
activity and a pick up in consumer demand as countries roll out
vaccines to tame the pandemic.
The S&P 500 industrials .SPLRCI and financial sector
.SPSY rose 1.0% each, while energy stocks .SPNY surged 4.3%
on higher oil prices. O/R
At 12:04 p.m. ET, the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down
234.03 points, or 1.69%, at 13,640.44, while the Dow Jones
Industrial Average .DJI was up 29.43 points, or 0.09%, at
31,523.75, with Walt Disney Co DIS.N boosting the blue-chip
index.
Discovery Inc DISCA.O jumped 9.2% after the media company
said it was expecting 12 million global paid streaming
subscribers by the end of February, as coronavirus-led
restrictions kept people at home. Kohl's Corp KSS.N gained 9.4% after a group of activist
investors nominated nine directors to the department store
chain's board. Principal Financial Group Inc PFG.O added 8.9% after a
media report that activist investor Elliott Management Corp had
taken a stake in the life insurance company and planned to push
for changes. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.01-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a
1.18-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 59 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 218 new highs and seven new low.