US STOCKS-Wall St dips, with technology the biggest drag

(Updates prices, market activity and comments, adds details
about Treasury market close)
* Nasdaq headed for monthly loss
* Bank stocks rebound
* Indexes: Dow down 0.3%, S&P 500 down 0.3%, Nasdaq down
0.1%

By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, March 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended down
slightly on Tuesday, with investors selling tech-related growth
shares after U.S. Treasury yields hit a 14-month high.
At the same time, the S&P 500 financials .SPSY ,
industrials .SPLRCI and consumer discretionary .SPLRCD
sectors rose, extending the recent rotation out of growth and
into so-called value names.
Tech shares trimmed losses in afternoon trading with
Treasury yields off the day's high, but the S&P technology
sector .SPLRCT ended down 1% on the day and was the biggest
drag on the S&P 500. The Nasdaq was on track for its first
monthly loss since November following the recent rise in yields.
Tech stocks, which have a low-rate environment heavily baked
into their pricey valuations, have been among the hardest hit by
the rise in yields.
"It's somewhat of a leadership-less market," said Tim
Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in
New York. "Investors' preferences are flipping around here
almost on a daily basis, primarily between tech plus and
cyclicals.
"Cyclicals have certainly had the upper hand here for a
while, trading off the reopening of the economy. Tech plus holds
in there because it's really the promise of the future - it
should provide investors with steady growth."
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield US10YT=RR rose to 1.776%
in early London trade, its highest since Jan. 22. But the yield
reversed and was lower in late New York trading as traders
prepared for quarter-end. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 104.41 points,
or 0.31%, to 33,066.96, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 12.54 points, or
0.32%, to 3,958.55 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
14.25 points, or 0.11%, to 13,045.39.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday will unveil more details
about the first stage of his infrastructure plan, which could be
worth as much as $4 trillion. A leading value index .RLV was up 0.1% while a growth
index .RLG shed 0.6% in a continuation of a trend since late
last year.
"For the next day or two, (value stocks) will probably be
leaders because we have quarter-end and institutions want to
make sure that they have exposure to the names that performed
well," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota
Wealth in New York.
Bets on a swift economic rebound backed by vaccine rollouts
and unprecedented stimulus have helped the S&P 500 and the Dow
hit record closing highs recently.
Bank stocks rebounded as investors took heart from signs
that the impact from the fall of a U.S. hedge fund did not
ripple out to broader markets.
Wells Fargo & Co WFC.N shares jumped 2.5% after the lender
said it had a prime brokerage relationship with Archegos Capital
and that it no longer had any exposure and did not experience
any losses. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.48-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.47-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 32 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 49 new highs and 73 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.29 billion shares, compared
with the 13.5 billion average for the full session over the last
20 trading days.