(Updates to afternoon trading)
* Tech stocks fall as 10-year yields touch 14-month high
* Banks, industrial stocks gain
* Indexes down: Dow 0.3%, S&P 500 0.3%, Nasdaq 0.3%
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, March 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were down
slightly in afternoon trading on Tuesday, with investors selling
tech-related growth shares as U.S. Treasury yields hit a
14-month high.
At the same time, S&P 500 financials .SPSY , industrials
.SPLRCI and consumer discretionary .SPLRCD rose, extending
the recent rotation out of growth and into so-called value
names.
Shares of Apple Inc AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and
Amazon.com AMZN.O all were lower.
The Nasdaq .IXIC was on track for its first monthly loss
since November following the recent rise in Treasury yields.
Tech stocks, which have a low-rate environment heavily baked in
to their high valuations, have been among the hardest hit by the
rise in yields.
"Investor preferences are flipping around here almost on a
daily basis, primarily between tech plus and cyclicals," said
Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel
in New York, New York.
"Cyclicals have certainly had the upper hand here for a
while, trading off the reopening of the economy."
The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield US10YT=RR hit a
14-month high as big banks shed debt holdings ahead of a March
31 regulatory change. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 91.44 points,
or 0.28%, to 33,079.93, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 13.58 points, or
0.34%, to 3,957.51 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
32.37 points, or 0.25%, to 13,027.28.
The Russell 2000 value index .RLV added about 0.1%,
outperforming the Russell 2000 growth index .RLG , which shed
about 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 helped the S&P 500 and the Dow notch
record closing highs last week, while the Nasdaq is still below
its all-time closing high from February.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden will unveil more details
about the first stage of his infrastructure plan, which could be
worth as much as $4 trillion. 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 jumped 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
1.30-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.30-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 40 new highs and 71 new lows.